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J." 


BIOLOGICAL    ASPECTS 


OF 


HUMAN    PROBLEMS 


BY 

CHRISTIAN  A.   HERTER 


NeiD  gorfe 

THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

1911 

AU  rights  reserved 


COPTBIOHT,    1911, 

Bt  the  macmillan  company. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  November,  191X. 


NorfanoU  5r«8 

J.  S.'Cnsblng  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith  C3o, 

Norwood,  Mass.,  U.S.A. 


INTRODUCTORY   NOTE 

Though  the  manuscript  of  this  book  was  left  in  the 
form  of  a  connected  draft,  it  was  not  in  final  form  for 
publication  at  the  time  of  Dr.  Herter's  death.  This 
applies  more  particularly  to  the  chapters  here  grouped 
under  book  four,  which  do  not  fairly  represent  the 
full  development  of  the  author's  thought  as  indicated 
by  many  additional  notes,  and  by  complete  but 
unconnected  passages  by  which  they  are  accom- 
panied. A  more  extensive  treatment,  especially 
of  the  eleventh  chapter,  had  been  planned;  the 
substance  of  the  two  following  ones  was  represented 
by  three  separate  drafts,  each  of  which  contained  a 
considerable  amount  of  material  not  duplicated  in 
the  others.  The  most  complete  of  these  drafts  is 
here  printed,  with  the  addition  of  a  few  short  pas- 
sages from  the  other  two. 

In  editing  the  manuscript  for  the  press,  no  essen- 
tial alterations  in  plan  or  treatment  have  been  made, 
but  a  few  minor  changes  have  seemed  necessary. 
The  five  long  chapters  of  the  original  draft  have  been 
subdivided  into  fourteen  shorter  ones  and  have 
been  grouped  in  four  ''Books."  A  few  passages  that 
involved  a  certain  amount  of  repetition  have  been 
omitted,  a  few  have  been  altered  in  sequence,  and 


vi  INTRODUCTORY   NOTE 

one  or  two  statements  of  fact  have  been  slightly 
modified,  in  form,  though  not  in  substance,  in  the 
belief  that  these  changes  would  have  been  approved 
by  the  author  himself.  In  other  respects  the  book 
stands  as  it  was  written. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  those  of  Dr.  Herter's 
scientific  friends  who  had  discussed  with  him  some 
of  the  subjects  treated  and  were  familiar  with  his 
general  views.  Without  their  generous  help  and 
encouragement  I  should  have  found  it  difficult  to 
prepare  the  manuscript  for  the  press. 

SUSAN  DOWS  HERTER. 


PREFACE 

This  volume  is  based  on  notes  begun  during  a 
trip  to  Egypt  in  1906,  when  it  occurred  to  me  that 
a  discussion  of  certain  human  problems  from  the 
biological  standpoint  might  prove  helpful  to  my 
children.  It  had  long  seemed  to  me  that  the  serious 
student  of  biological  processes  might  in  time  reach 
views  respecting  the  mystery  of  life,  which  should 
throw  some  light  on  the  attitude  of  people  toward 
nature  and  especially  toward  other  human  beings. 
Having  reached  a  time  of  life  when  I  began  to  feel 
confidence  that  the  laws  of  biology  might  often  prove 
reliable  guides  to  the  understanding  of  puzzling 
situations  in  life,  I  experienced  a  desire  to  state  my 
views  to  my  children  in  a  manner  more  definite  than 
is  possible  in  conversation.  I  am  now  led  to  publish 
my  interpretation  of  biological  laws  in  their  bearing 
on  human  life  in  the  hope  that  they  may  prove  of 
some  service  to  persons  who  have  faith  that  an  under- 
standing of  such  laws  is  frequently  a  help  to  more 
intelligent  and  humane  conduct. 

I  know  there  are  still  many  cultivated  persons 
who  are  unfriendly  or  actively  hostile  to  a  rational- 
istic standpoint  in  relation  to  ethical  questions. 
They  believe  that  religious  teachings  are  the  best 


Viii  PREFACE 

guide  to  conduct  and  resent  the  intrusion  of  seem- 
ingly new  standards.  Others  uninfluenced  by  reli- 
gious training  are  of  the  opinion  that  philosophic 
considerations  are  useless  and  that  every  human 
being  has  to  work  out  his  own  salvation  by  personal 
experience.  Both  these  attitudes  seem  to  me  sin- 
gularly unimaginative  and  unidealistic.  For  if  it  is 
true  that  human  beings  are  no  exception  to  the  rule 
that  all  organized  beings  are  in  the  process  of  adap- 
tation to  their  surroundings,  is  it  not  evident  that 
the  chief  aim  of  conscious  beings  should  be  the  intelli- 
gent and  artful  adaptations  of  each  individual  to  his 
special  group  of  conditions?  But  how  is  that  pos- 
sible without  some  understanding  of  the  larger  prin- 
ciples operative  in  the  control  of  the  body?  It 
will  not  suffice  to  say  that  every  person,  by  taking 
a  common-sense  view  of  life  or  a  religious  view  of 
life,  will  learn  to  act  for  the  best.  The  truth  is  that 
human  problems  are  extremely  complex  and  that 
knowledge  is  required  to  solve  them.  History  has 
richly  supplied  us  with  instances  of  the  ways  in 
which  religious  teaching  has  been  appealed  to  in 
solving  human  questions;  it  has  also  supplied  us 
with  sufficiently  numerous  examples  of  what  happens 
when  untrained  people  have  been  guided  by  precon- 
ceived ideas  or  have  depended  on  opportunism  and 
personal  desire.  The  results,  it  seems  to  me,  have 
not  been  so  satisfactory  as  to  make  one  feel  that 
other  guides  to  conduct  can  be  pushed  aside  as 
unnecessary.    The  biological  idea  of  human  life  is 


PREFACE  ix 

very,  recent  and  has  been  little  tried.  Harvey 
discovered  the  circulation  of  the  blood  in  1645. 
Obviously  biological  conceptions  of  life  previous  to 
that  time  must  have  been  too  crude  to  have  any 
significance  for  human  conduct.  Lavoisier  in  1799 
showed  that  combustion  consists  in  the  union  of 
oxygen  with  the  objects  burned.  This  was  a  dis- 
covery destined  to  have  the  most  significant  influ- 
ence on  conceptions  of  human  physiology,  but 
imagine  the  state  of  biological  thought  pre\dous  to 
the  development  of  this  influence  !  Only  fifty  years 
ago  Darwin  published  the  "  Origin  of  Species  "and 
gave  the  first  compelling  hypothesis  of  the  nature 
of  human  evolution  from  lower  forms.  How  was  it 
possible  to  form  reasonable  biological  views  of  human 
life  previous  to  that  time?  The  last  half  century 
has  witnessed  a  wonderful  extension  of  biological 
conceptions  in  general,  and  people  have  barely  begun 
to  realize  that  the  discoveries  of  this  period  have 
made  it  necessary  to  wholly  revise  our  ideas  as  to 
life  processes.  But  if  this  revision  of  ideas  as  to  life 
in  general  is  necessary,  is  it  not  also  necessary  to 
extend  it  to  the  special  and  important  case  of  human 
life?  We  are  in  truth  in  the  midst  of  a  quiet  but 
irrepressible  and  progressive  revolution  in  thought, 
which  cannot  fail  profoundly  to  alter  men's  point 
of  view,  not  only  of  life  in  general,  but  of  the  nature 
and  judgment  of  human  conduct.  Is  it  not  rea- 
sonable to  welcome  any  aid  that  biological  thought 
may  extend  to   us  in  relation  to  human  actions; 


X  PREFACE 

should  not  this  messenger  too  have  a  hearing,  as 
well  as  religion  and  metaphysics? 

Perhaps  the  greatest  differences  between  human 
beings  relate  to  their  powers  of  constructive  imagi- 
nation, their  ability  to  interpret  the  present  and 
predict  the  future  in  the  light  of  the  past.  Most 
persons  do  not  possess  such  powers  in  high  degree. 
They  are  occupied  with  the  struggle  to  get  a  living, 
with  reproduction,  with  eating  and  drinking  and 
dressing,  and  with  certain  banal  amusements.  An 
interest  in  ideas  for  their  own  sake  is  commonly 
lacking.  They  take  the  static  view  of  life  rather 
than  the  dynamic,  whether  it  be  in  business  or 
pohtics  or  education.  They  fail  fully  to  grasp  the 
idea  that  all  things  living  are  in  a  state  of  seething 
flux,  tending  to  construction  or  destruction.  And 
naturally  they  fail  to  see  that  the  tendency,  construc- 
tive or  destructive,  is  governed  by  quite  definite 
laws,  which  the  human  mind  may  in  a  degree  under- 
stand and  even  utilize.  I  foresee  that  to  such  minds 
the  point  of  view  which  has  been  presented  in  this 
volume  will  make  no  favorable  appeal,  but  will  rather 
prove  distasteful  or  even  repellent. 

The  view  of  human  problems  which  I  have  ven- 
tured to  present  is  one  which  has  its  origin  in  the 
experiences  and  convictions  of  the  student  of  biology 
and  of  disease.  In  the  first  three  chapters  I  have 
tried  to  show  in  what  respects  the  animal  body  may 
be  regarded  as  a  mechanism,  and  in  what  respects 
it  differs  from  mechanical  contrivances  with  which 


PREFACE  xi 

we  are  now  acquainted.  The  mechanistic  hj^pothesis 
carries  with  it,  by  imphcation,  the  beUef  that  the 
human  animal  is  an  automaton  or  self-regulating 
machine,  of  unfathomable  complexity  and  extreme 
plasticity  with  respect  to  the  influence  of  stimuli 
of  external  or  internal  origin.  The  doctrine  of  the 
illusory  nature  of  the  sensation  of  free  will  has  its 
basis  in  this  conception  of  the  automatism  of  the 
central  nervous  system. 

In  the  following  seven  chapters  are  discussed  the 
nature  of  the  self-preservative  and  sexual  instincts, 
which  in  their  phylogeny  or  racial  ancientness  appear 
to  be  the  most  fundamental  of  all  instinctive  quali- 
ties in  living  protoplasm.  Other  instincts,  such  as 
relate,  for  example,  to  imitation,  affection,  the  love 
of  beauty,  and  the  awe  of  the  powerful  and  unin- 
telligible, seem  to  be  built  up  on  these  two  primitive 
instincts,  partly  through  their  fusion  or  interaction. 
This  view  is  imperfectly  expressed,  or  rather  out- 
lined, in  the  eleventh  chapter.  In  the  final  chapters 
I  have  been  so  venturesome  as  to  indicate  what 
seem  to  me  the  tendencies  in  development  in  educa- 
tion, literature,  music,  art,  business,  politics,  and 
science.  Many  of  the  ideas  here  expressed  are  put 
forw^ard  with  much  hesitancy,  as  the  difficult  ques- 
tions which  I  have  touched  on  so  casually  do  not 
lend  themselves  readily  to  such  impressionistic  han- 
dling. My  purpose  in  touching  on  them  at  all  has 
been  not  so  much  to  make  correct  forecasts  of  tend- 
ency, as  to  show  that  progress  in  general,  whether 


xii  PREFACE 

in  art,  in  morals,  in  sociology,  or  in  science,  bears 
an  extremely  close  relationship  to  biology  and  its 
concepts.  It  may  be  that  this  fact  is  quite  well 
imderstood  by  many  of  the  worthiest  representatives 
of  these  subjects,  but  my  personal  acquaintance  with 
cultivated  and  creative  persons  has  made  the  im- 
pression that  it  is  only  here  and  there  that  the  modern 
biological  spirit  has  been  recognized  as  a  powerful 
inspiration.  My  own  faith  is  so  strong  in  the  direc- 
tive value  of  a  serious  biological  conception  of  life, 
that  I  offer  this  essay,  hoping  its  spirit  may  evoke 
a  sympathetic  response  in  those  who,  like  myself, 
are  striving,  not  without  pain,  to  find  a  more  con- 
sistent guide  to  those  compUcated  personal  reac- 
tions which  we  call  conduct._ 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAOB 

Introductohy  Note v 

Preface yii 


BOOK   I 
THE  ANIMAL  BODY  AS  A  MECHAmSM 

CHAPTER  I 

The  Mechanistic  Conception 1 

Biological  processes  and  human  life.  History  of  the 
mechanistic  conception.  Life  and  the  conservation  of 
energy.  The  animal  organism  and  artificial  machines. 
Physical  and  chemical  properties  of  pi'otoplasm.  Metab- 
olism and  the  enzymes.  Oxidation  in  the  living  body. 
Growth,  reproduction,  and  regulation.  Vitalistic  and 
mechanistic  conceptions  compared.  The  nervous  mech- 
anism and  the  problem  of  coordination. 

CHAPTER  II 

Growth  and  Reproduction 41 

The  germ  cells  and  heredity.  Mendelian  heredity. 
Heredity  and  chromosomes.  The  determination  of  sex. 
Heredity  and  instinct.  Mnemic  theories  of  heredity. 
Natural  selection  and  evolution. 

CHAPTER  ni 

Consciousness  and  the  Will 64 

Consciousness  as  a  problem  of  biology.  The  relation 
between  mental  states  and  bodily  states.  Functions  of 
the  nervous  system  in  relation  to  consciousness.  Con- 
scious automatism  and  the  problem  of  the  will.  Moral 
responsibility  and  education. 


xiv  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

BOOK  II 

THE  SELF-PBESEBVATIVE  INSTINCT 

CHAPTER  IV 

PAoa 

The  Ikstinct  of  Survival 99 

Self-protective  reactions  of  the  body.  The  somatic 
appetite.  Hunger  and  its  consequences.  Self-preserva- 
tive reactions  of  the  nervous  system.  Youth,  maturity, 
and  age.    The  prolongation  of  life.    Health  and  disease. 

CHAPTER  V 

Defenses  of  the  Body 123 

Mechanical  and  chemical  defensive  processes.  Oxida- 
tion and  synthetic  defenses.  Leucocytes,  opsonins,  anti- 
bodies. Protective  activities  of  bacteria.  The  nature 
of  disease. 

CHAPTER  VI 

Self-preservation  and  the  Mental  Life  .  .  .  139 
Relation  of  the  mental  life  to  physical  conditions. 
Mental  abnormalities  and  defects  or  lesions  of  the  nerv- 
ous system.  Functional  mental  disorders.  Conscious- 
ness as  affected  by  chemical  agents.  Effects  of  bacterial, 
intestinal,  and  other  poisons.  Cerebral  activity  and  the 
nerves  of  sensation.  Erroneous  habits.  Effects  of  sug- 
gestion on  mental  life.  Hypnotic  suggestion.  Christian 
Science  and  the  Emmanuel  Church. 

CHAPTER  Vn 

Death  and  Immortality 169 

The  mystery  of  death.  Human  life  and  the  life  of 
the  brain.  Personality  and  the  integrity  of  the  cortical 
structures.  Science,  education,  and  the  belief  in  im- 
mortality. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  xv 

BOOK   III 

THE  SEX  INSTINCT 

CHAPTER  Vni 

Sex  and  the  Individual 182 

Sexual  reproduction  in  general.  Fertilization  of  the 
egg  and  development  of  the  embryo.  The  sexual  instinct 
and  its  abuses.  Sexual  morality.  Prostitution.  The 
duty  of  reproduction  and  its  responsibilities. 

CHAPTER  IX 

Sex  and  Social  Relations 207 

Social  relations  of  male  and  female.  Aspects  of  the 
marriage  relation.  Polygamy  and  monogamy.  Mar- 
riage and  divoi'ce.  Relation  of  parents  and  children. 
The  regulation  of  reproduction.  Social  betterment  and 
the  control  of  population. 

CHAPTER  X 

The  Male  and  the  Female  Mind 235 

The  psychological  relations  of  men  and  women.  Sex 
and  cerebral  organization.  The  family  relation.  Im- 
agination and  the  will.  Creative  activity.  Courtship 
and  marriage. 

BOOK  IV 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  INSTINCTS  IN  THEIR 
RELATION  TO  HUMAN  DEVELOPMENT 

CHAPTER  XI 

The  Arts  and  Religion 252 

Introduction.  Art  and  the  nervous  mechanism.  Danc- 
ing and  the  muscular  sense.  Painting,  sculpture,  archi- 
tecture, music.  Literature  and  drama.  The  arts  as 
products  of  a  fusion  of  the  self-preservative  and  the 
sexual  instincts.     Religion. 


xvi  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  XII 

PAOB 

Education  and  the  Future  of  the  Race  .  .  .  288 
Physical  aspects  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race.  The  bodily 
welfare  of  nations  in  relation  to  mental  and  moral  growi-h. 
Education  of  the  nervous  system.  Educational  sugges- 
tions from  biological  sources.  Observation,  memory, 
reason.  Scientific  and  classical  studies.  Education  and 
the  sexual  instinct. 

CHAPTER  Xin 

The  Fruits  of  Education 317 

The  position  of  women.    Education  of  women.    Eco- 
nomic problems.    Aristocracy  and  social  organization. 

CHAPTER  XIV 
Conclusion 337 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF  HUMAN 
PROBLEMS 


BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF   HUMAN 
PROBLEMS 

BOOK   I.    THE   ANIMAL   BODY  AS  A 
MECHANISM 

CHAPTER  i 

THE   MECHANISTIC   CONCEPTION 

As  we  learn  more  about  the  specific  conditions  that 
attend  life  in  the  higher  animals,  there  comes  a  grow- 
ing conviction  that  the  biological  processes  that  hold 
sway  in  our  bodies  and  condition  our  minds  must 
have  a  controlling,  though  often  veiled,  influence  on 
the  ordinary  occurrences  of  life.  Human  problems 
have  often  been  scrutinized  from  the  standpoint  of 
religion  and  metaphysics  and  sometimes  from  the 
position  of  the  artist,  but  aside  from  medical  teaching 
singularly  little  effort  has  been  made  to  glean  what 
there  is  to  be  learned  from  the  laws  governing  the 
physical  or  body  mechanisms  in  their  relation  to 
men's  acts.  Perhaps  the  inherent  difficulties  in  any 
such  attempt  have  acted  as  a  deterrent  to  the  wise, 
since  it  needs  no  profound  thought  to  realize  that  the 
simplest  of  living  phenomena  are  far  beyond  satis- 
factory analysis  by  the  human  mind,  however  greatly 
it  may  be  aided  by  the  helps  with  which  science  has 


2     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

SO  richly  furnished  us.  The  biologist  recognizes  that 
the  living  individual  is  made  up  of  an  aggregation  of 
myriads  of  tiny  cells,  each  of  which  is  capable,  in  a 
measure,  of  carrying  on  the  processes  of  life  in  a 
sense  independently  of  its  neighbors;  and  that  in 
these  cells  the  secrets  of  life  are  to  be  sought.  It  is 
the  conviction  and  working  hypothesis  of  foremost 
modern  biologists  that  the  organized  material  mak- 
ing up  the  living  cells  is  governed  by  physical  and 
chemical  processes,  and  that  there  is  now  no  reason- 
able ground  for  assuming  the  existence  of  a  special 
and  distinct  "vital  force"  independent  of  such  phys- 
ical and  chemical  processes.  Nevertheless,  to  pic- 
ture clearly  the  multiplicity  of  chemical  and  physical 
exchanges  in  energy  that  have  their  seat  in  the  in- 
dividual cell  is  a  goal  which  not  even  the  enthusiastic 
novice  in  biology  believes  to  be  in  sight.  And  the 
hope  of  obtaining  a  truly  adequate  explanation  of 
life,  such  as  might  come  only  through  a  far  deeper 
penetration  into  the  secret  of  the  elementary  forces 
concerned  with  all  matter,  is  deferred  from  genera- 
tion to  generation.  But  this  delay  is  no  ground  for 
discouragement,  since  it  is  accompanied  by  an  ever- 
widening  and  deepening  insight  into  the  nature  of 
forces  and  things. 

Perhaps  the  literary  artists  have  been  in  a  very 
different  way  quite  as  successful  as  the  scientists  in 
giving  men  a  glimpse  into  the  workings  of  these  laws, 
and  it  is  certain  that  the  wisdom  of  the  poet  and  seer 
and  the  interpretations  of  the  novelist  are  equally 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  3 

welcome,  to  the  philosophical  mind,  with  the  discov- 
eries of  those  who  have  contented  themselves  with  the 
study  of  the  more  frankly  mechanical  aspects  of  life. 
There  are  signs  that  the  scientific  discoverer  and  the 
literary  artist  have  much  in  common  which  must  one 
day  form  the  basis  of  a  new  sort  of  literature  in  which 
the  fundamental  qualities  of  nature  will  be  handled 
in  highly  imaginative  but  legitimate  language.  The 
work  of  Henry  James,  of  Mrs.  Ward,  and  of  Edith 
Wharton  show  unmistakable  evidences  of  an  ana- 
lytical tendency  traceable  to  the  teachings  of  biologi- 
cal science.  The  standpoint  of  the  literary  crafts- 
man is  less  fundamental  than  that  of  the  biologist, 
for  it  encourages  him  to  deal  mainly  with  the  tran- 
scendingly  complex  and  obscure  symbols  of  brain 
activity — with  human  feelings,  emotions,  and  judg- 
ments. However  skilfully  and  veritably  he  may 
depict  these  subtle  phases  of  cerebral  action,  he  leans 
on  intuition  as  a  guide.  Shakespeare,  Goethe,  Mere- 
dith, George  Eliot,  and  Emerson,  despite  the  dynamic 
qualities  of  their  artistry  in  psychological  analyses 
and  syntheses,  might  have  gained  in  scope  and  pre- 
cision from  a  better  insight  into  the  laws  of  biology, 
especially  as  expressed  in  human  personality.  To 
emphasize  the  evanescent  in  life  processes,  to  strive 
for  more  just  conceptions  of  the  dynamical  elements 
in  human  conduct,  should  become  more  and  more  a 
goal  of  literary  activity. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  no  lastingly 
satisfactory  conception  of  human  conduct  can  be 


4     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

formed  without  a  clearer  recognition  of  the  essen- 
tially fundamental  attributes  of  the  human  animal 
organism.  People  have  long  suspected  that  the 
human  body  is  in  truth  a  machine  of  extreme  com- 
plexity of  function.  But  that  the  human  body 
should  be  regarded  as  something  more  than  a  mere 
machine  is  only  natural.  Yet  the  resemblances 
between  the  most  refined  mechanisms  of  human 
design  and  the  human  body  are  so  many  and  so 
fundamental  that  it  is  no  light  task  to  trace  fairly  the 
resemblances  and  differences.  What  is  true  of  the 
entire  animal  organism  in  this  respect  is  true  of 
each  individual  cell  in  the  living  body;  namely,  that 
while  an  ever-increasing  proportion  of  its  activities 
may  be  explained  on  the  basis  of  physicochemical 
laws,  there  still  remain  functions  that  defy  known 
methods  of  analysis. 


The  mechanistic  conception  of  the  animal  body  is 
essentially  of  modem  origin.  Harvey's  discovery 
of  the  circulation  of  the  blood  paved  the  way  to  the 
recognition  of  the  heart  as  an  efficient  force  pump ; 
and  more  recent  studies  have  made  it  clear  that  a 
proper  distribution  of  nutrient  material  and  of 
oxygen  depends  on  the  integrity  of  various  mechani- 
cal arrangements  connected  with  the  circulatory 
system.  In  general,  the  maintenance  of  a  good 
blood  supply  is  of  the  first  importance  for  the 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  5 

preservation  of  function  —  reduce  the  blood  flow 
through  the  kidney,  and  the  secretion  of  urine 
ceases;  reduce  the  blood  flow  through  the  brain, 
and  the  loss  of  memory  is  followed  quickly  by  loss 
of  consciousness.  Even  more  obvious  than  the 
mechanical  features  of  the  circulation  are  the 
mechanical  principles  involved  in  movement  and 
locomotion.  The  same  systems  of  levers  that  have 
been  utilized  in  machines  made  by  man  come  into 
constant  use,  in  highly  refined  ways,  in  the  animal 
organism.  The  application  of  such  principles  as 
these  in  human  locomotion  was  well  understood  by 
Borelli,  the  Italian  physiologist,  who  more  than 
two  hundred  years  ago  published  an  ingenious  essay 
on  the  subject  ("De  Motu  Animalium"),  in  which 
he  set  forth  the  mathematical  principles  involved. 
Descartes,  in  the  seventeenth  century,  was  deeply 
impressed  with  the  idea  that  the  brain  is  the  organ 
which  subserves  sensation,  thought,  and  emotion, 
and  that  some  alteration  in  the  state  of  the  matter 
of  this  organ  is  the  regular  antecedent  of  the  state  of 
consciousness  described  by  the  words  "sensation," 
"thought,"  and  "emotion."  His  insight  extended 
also  to  a  knowledge  that  the  movements  of  animals 
depend  on  changes  in  the  forms  of  the  muscles  and 
that  these  changes  in  form  result  from  processes 
that  go  on  in  the  matter  of  the  nerves  going  to  the 
muscles ;  and  he  further  realized  that  the  sensations 
of  animals  are  dependent  on  changes  in  the  matter 
of  the  nerves  that  connect  the  organs  of  sense  with 


6     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

the  brain.  Descartes  concluded  that  animals  are 
self-regulating  machines,  or  automata,  but  strongly 
repudiated  this  idea  as  applied  to  man. 

A  striking  indication  of  the  validity  of  the  idea 
that  the  human  body  is  essentially  a  machine, 
capable  of  generating  and  expending  energy  like 
machines  of  human  invention,  was  furnished  by  the 
highly  significant  discovery  of  the  law  of  the  con- 
servation of  energy.  Faraday,  the  great  experi- 
mental physicist,  was  on  the  verge  of  this  discovery, 
but  circumstances  placed  it  within  the  ken  of  a 
German  physician,  Julius  Robert  Meyer.  Observ- 
ant and  thoughtful,  this  young  man  while  on  a  trip 
to  a  warm  country  noticed  that  the  blood  in  the 
veins  of  a  patient  was  lighter  in  color  than  is  the  case 
with  the  venous  blood  of  persons  in  temperate  or 
cold  climates.  From  this  little  observation  Meyer 
inferred  that  the  lighter  color  meant  less  active 
oxidation  in  the  tissues  of  the  body,  and  that  this 
lesser  oxidation  is  just  what  one  would  expect 
where  a  lesser  formation  of  animal  heat  was  needed 
by  the  organism.  In  a  cold  climate  the  body  would 
be  compelled  to  make  more  heat,  and  to  do  this 
would  be  compelled  to  oxidize  more  intensely.  It 
flashed  on  Meyer  that  the  oxidations  or  combustions 
in  the  body  must  be  the  source  of  all  animal  heat. 
He  was  thus  led  to  look  on  the  body  as  a  machine, 
and  this  brought  him  independently  to  exactly  the 
same  conclusion  as  that  which  has  been  reached  by 
the  physicist  Joule;  namely,  to  the  doctrine  of  the 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  7 

mechanical  equivalent  of  heat,  according  to  which  a 
given  amount  of  energy  of  motion  will  yield  a  given 
amount  of  heat,  and  no  more.  So  there  arose  the 
conception  that  the  human  animal,  like  all  animals 
and,  indeed,  all  plants,  is  a  mechanical  organism 
directed  by  the  same  laws  that  govern  inorganic 
matter  and  able  to  transform  energy,  as  from  heat 
into  motion  or  from  motion  into  heat,  though  unable 
to  create  new  energy.  At  the  same  time  the  chemist 
Liebig  confidently  put  forward  the  doctrine  that 
oxidations  go  on  in  the  body,  not,  as  had  been  sup- 
posed, in  the  lungs,  where  the  oxygen  is  drawn  in, 
but  in  the  tissues,  where  the  oxygen  is  carried  by 
the  blood  stream.  To-day  it  is  universally  recog- 
nized by  physiologists  that  the  body  machine  con- 
verts the  potential  energy  of  food  into  two  main 
forms  of  energy,  —  animal  heat  and  motion,  —  as  the 
steam  engine  utihzes  the  energy  which  comes  from 
the  burning  of  coal  or  wood. 

Any  consideration  of  the  processes  of  combustion 
within  the  living  organism  brings  us  face  to  face  with 
a  question  of  large,  general  significance  :  Does  the 
law  of  the  conservation  of  energy  hold  good  alike 
in  the  humanly  produced  engine  and  in  the  animal 
body?  It  would  be  aside  from  our  main  purpose 
to  dwell  on  this  highly  interesting  question.  But 
it  is  important  for  us  to  reahze  that  the  many  experi- 
ments which  have  been  made  to  settle  this  question 
justify  us  in  concluding  that  the  law  of  the  conser- 
vation of  energy  is  equally  true  for  engines  of  human 


8     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

make  and  for  living  animal  mechanisms.  Great 
difficulties  attend  the  testing  of  this  question  in  the 
animal  organism,  owing  to  that  complexity  which 
arises  from  the  interaction  of  the  numerous  processes 
that  go  on  simultaneously  and  side  by  side.  As  the 
result  of  this  complexity  we  cannot  test  the  law  of 
conservation  as  we  can  test  it  in  simple  machines, 
for  we  have  to  make  various  disturbing  allowances 
for  interferences  of  many  kinds.  Nevertheless  it 
is  safe  to  regard  it  as  a  practical  certainty  that  the 
doctrine  of  conservation  holds  good  for  living  ani- 
mals. The  human  machine  is  superior  to  all  engines 
in  the  extent  to  which  it  utilizes  the  power  stored  in  its 
sources  of  energy.  This  superiority  depends  largely 
on  the  better  absorption  of  heat  generated  by  com- 
bustion. Owing  to  the  conditions  of  combustion 
in  the  living  body,  this  absorption  of  heat  approaches 
the  ideal  level;  owing  to  the  crude  conditions  of 
absorption  in  the  artificial  machine,  there  is  an 
enormous  loss  of  energy  which  human  ingenuity 
has  never  been  able  in  practice  to  correct.  Doubt- 
less an  artificial  engine  could  be  so  constructed  as  to 
overcome  this  fault,  but  it  would  be  a  scientific 
curiosity  and  not  a  practical  source  of  energy. 

A  beautiful  example  of  the  mechanical  principle 
which  subserves  a  highly  refined  function  of  the  body 
is  to  be  seen  in  the  relations  of  the  crystalline  lens 
of  the  eye  to  the  formation  of  visual  images  on  the 
retina.  The  physical  and  mathematical  laws  gov- 
erning the  formation  of  these  images  were  admirably 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  9 

worked  out  by  Helmholtz  during  the  middle  of  the 
last  century,  and  have  required  little  amplification. 
The  resemblance  of  the  mechanism  of  the  human 
eye  to  a  photographic  camera  is  so  close  that  only  a 
dull  mind  fails  to  see  it.  The  analogy  pertains  not 
merely  to  the  crystalline  lens,  but  to  the  extremely 
sensitive  receiving  mechanism  of  the  retina. 

In  1840  Ktihne,  the  Heidelberg  physiologist,  dis- 
covered the  singularly  sensitive  and  unstable  sub- 
stance known  as  the  retinal  red.  This  evasive  sub- 
stance, so  easily  destroyed  by  the  ordinary  methods 
of  chemistry,  apparently  forms  an  evanescent, 
constantly  renewed  layer  in  the  retina.  This  layer, 
although  not  essential  to  sight  in  all  animals,  never- 
theless seems  to  sensitize  the  retina  to  the  rays  of 
light  which  fall  on  it  after  convergence  there  through 
the  crystalline  lens.  The  retinal  red  is  thus  the 
analogue  of  the  light-sensitive  film  of  a  photographic 
plate.  It  is  clearly  the  basis  of  a  process  in  which 
chemical  changes  are  prominent.  And  not  merely 
does  this  wonderful  substance  in  some  way  aid  vision, 
but  it  also  gives  us  a  possible  intimation  —  a  vague 
one,  but  the  most  definite  we  have  —  as  to  how 
certain  layers  of  nerve  cells  in  the  brain  may  be  sen- 
sitized to  the  reception  of  some  sorts  of  sensory 
stimuli  through  the  agency  of  chemically  unstable 
substances.  Another  instance  of  a  Uving  mechanism 
which  has  its  physical  parallel  outside  the  body  is 
furnished  by  the  structures  concerned  with  hearing. 
The  eardrum  has  a  close  analogue  in  the  vibratory 


10    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

diaphragm  of  a  telephone  receiver.  The  auditory 
records  or  memories  in  the  nervous  system  bring  to 
mind  the  continuous  records  made  on  the  tinfoil  of 
a  phonograph.  But  the  revival  of  the  tracings  of 
the  phonograph,  impUcating  as  it  does  a  process 
purely  physical  in  its  nature,  must  be  very  different 
from  the  reawakening  of  memory  through  the 
chemical  processes  which  we  must  assume  to  under- 
lie nervous  activities.  Yet  there  attaches  a  deep 
interest  to  the  idea  that  the  brain  may  contain 
materials  which  fixate  in  some  definite  though  subtle 
material  way  the  impressions  which  act  on  them; 
and  moreover  in  such  a  way  that  the  materials  con- 
cerned in  this  fixation  may  on  occasion  be  rearranged 
so  as  to  revive  the  original  impressions.  The  rela- 
tively crude  physical  analogy  of  the  phonographic 
tracing  is  welcome,  for  it  is  now  the  only  one  we  have 
and  may  prove  the  forerunner  of  knowledge  of 
chemical  parallels. 

II 

Enough  examples  have  now  been  cited  to  show 
some  notable  similarities  between  animal  organisms 
and  artificial  machines.  These  similarities  are  suffi- 
ciently profound  to  create  a  strong  presumption 
that  there  are  many  other  resemblances,  perhaps 
less  obvious  but  equally  instructive  as  bearing  on 
the  mechanistic  hypothesis.  Research  has,  indeed, 
brought  to  light  an  immense  body  of  additional  facts 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  11 

favorable  to  the  mechanistic  or  physicochemical 
view  of  life.  It  is  possible  to  consider  here  only  a 
small  number  of  these  facts,  and  it  seems  best  to  think 
of  these  in  relation  to  the  most  obvious  differences 
that  exist  between  the  animal  mechanism  and  the 
organized  products  of  human  inventiveness.  If  we 
think  of  our  evidence  in  this  way,  we  shall  be  better 
able  to  perceive  the  strength  or  weakness  of  the 
mechanistic  conception.  There  are  four  properties 
of  living  organisms  which  distinguish  them  with 
the  utmost  clearness  from  even  the  most  complex 
mechanisms  of  human  make.  These  properties  are, 
first,  the  peculiar  chemical  constitution  of  the  basic 
material  or  protoplasm  of  which  the  living  cells  are 
composed;  secondly,  the  powers  of  metabolism  or 
simultaneous  upbuilding  and  breakdown  of  the 
living  protoplasm;  thirdly,  the  power  of  reproduc- 
tion ;  and,  finally,  the  power  of  growth  and  all  that 
this  implies  in  respect  to  a  regulative  influence  over 
the  living  material. 

Let  us  consider,  first,  the  known  physical  and 
chemical  properties  of  the  living  protoplasm.  This 
useful  term  bridges  immense  chasms  in  our  knowl- 
edge. The  substance  which  fills  the  living  cells 
has  no  uniformity  of  physical  or  chemical  constitu- 
tion, for  it  varies  considerably  in  different  kinds  of 
cells.  But  it  has  certain  distinctive  properties  which 
stand  in  the  most  intimate  relation  to  the  things 
which  living  cells  do.  Both  the  physical  and  chemi- 
cal properties  of  protoplasm  are  in  the  main  due  to 


12    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

the  properties  of  the  proteins  of  which  the  pro- 
toplasm mainly  consists.  The  proteins  are  sub- 
stances of  a  colloid  nature,  that  is  to  say,  substances 
which  do  not  permeate  animal  membranes  at  all 
or  only  with  the  utmost  sluggishness.  The  colloid 
character  of  the  proteins  imparts  to  the  living  pro- 
toplasm a  high  degree  of  physical  stability  and 
enables  unlike  chemical  processes  to  be  carried  on 
side  by  side  in  the  living  cell,  without  risk  of  inter- 
ference between  the  minute  foci  of  action.  If  we 
study  the  living  protoplasm  with  the  microscope, 
we  can  see  features  of  structure  which  speak  for  the 
view  first  expressed  by  Biitschli  —  that  protoplasm 
has  a  foamhke  structure.  There  are  reasons  for 
believing  that  there  is  a  close  physical  analogy 
between  foams  and  emulsions,  and  the  colloids  lend 
themselves  readily  to  existence  in  both  these  states 
and  to  the  solid  and  liquid  conditions  on  which 
emulsions  and  foams  depend.  An  extremely  sig- 
nificant feature  of  the  colloid  property  of  undergoing 
minute  subdivision  is  the  fact  that  the  very  extended 
surface  so  generated  is  a  powerful  aid  to  chemical 
activity.  The  intense  chemical  activities  of  living 
protoplasm  are  doubtless  made  possible  by  this 
accelerating  action  of  widely  extended  yet  contig- 
uous surface.  Chemistry  furnishes  us  with  a  gross 
analogy  which  may  be  cited  in  this  connection.  If 
we  pass  ammonia  gas  through  a  porcelain  tube  heated 
to  1000°  C,  there  occurs  a  moderate  decomposition 
of  the  gas.    But  if  we  repeat  the  experiment,  using 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  13 

a  tube  filled  with  finely  divided  porous  bits  of  porce- 
lain, the  ammonia  is  decomposed  into  its  constituent 
nitrogen  and  hydrogen  even  at  a  much  lower  tem- 
perature. 

The  essential  material  basis  of  living  things  is 
called  protoplasm.  The  basis  of  protoplasm  ap- 
pears to  be  the  material  known  as  protein.  Dead 
protoplasm  and  protein  are  not  identical,  for  the 
cell  contents  embody  many  small  particles  of  life- 
less matter  which  have  a  different  chemical  consti- 
tution from  that  of  protein;  for  example,  glycogen, 
fats,  fatty  acids,  and  other  substances  of  physiological 
importance.  The  cell  contents  hold  also  the  enzymes 
which  are  so  active  in  effecting  chemical  changes. 
Although  the  enzymes  probably  share  the  chemical 
nature  of  protein,  they  must  be  thought  of  as  some- 
thing quite  distinct  from  the  protein  masses  which 
make  up  the  greater  part  of  the  living  or  dead  proto- 
plasm. The  chemical  nature  of  these  constituent 
masses  appears  to  determine  in  large  degree  the 
character  of  the  protoplasm. 

The  proteins  vary  in  chemical  constitution  within 
rather  wide  limits.  We  know  that  the  protein  mole- 
cule is  always  of  great  size  as  compared  with  the 
sugar  molecule  or  the  fat  molecule,  and  it  is  clear  that 
its  colloid  properties  depend  on  this.  It  is  quite 
beside  the  present  purpose  to  discuss  the  chemical 
nature  of  the  proteins.  The  exact  grouping  of  the 
various  kinds  of  atoms  in  the  most  complex  pro- 
teins is  still  wrapped  in  darkness  despite  important 


14    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

gains  in  knowledge.  Of  the  simpler  proteins  more 
is  known,  and  the  chemical  components  of  some  of 
the  simplest  are  established.  What  concerns  us 
here  is  the  fact  that  some  bodies  related  to  simplest 
proteins  have  been  made  by  chemical  synthesis.  In 
1829  the  noble-minded  German  chemist  Wohler 
convinced  skeptical  scientists  that  he  could  make 
urea  from  ammonium  cyanate.  This  was  an  epoch- 
making  discovery,  for  it  showed  that  the  chemist 
can  synthesize  an  organic  substance  formed  in  nature 
by  the  animal  body  only.  Now  we  have  been  shown 
by  Fischer  that  certain  natural  proteins  can  be  made 
in  the  laboratory.  Yet  this  admirable  achievement 
leaves  a  wide  gap  to  the  synthesis  of  Uving  proto- 
plasm. It  is  certain  that  no  one  has  yet  transformed 
dead  into  living  matter.  The  satisfactory  synthesis 
of  higher  proteins  would  be  a  step,  but  only  a  step, 
in  the  right  direction.  It  is  true  that  Verworn  has 
defined  Ufe  as  the  metabolism  of  proteins,  but  the 
conception  is  patently  inadequate.  In  order  to 
feel  sure  that  success  has  been  reached  in  converting 
dead  into  living  matter,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
show  that  the  artificial  substance  is  capable  of  growth 
and  reproduction.  For  me  it  seems  inconceivable 
that  any  artificial  product  should  be  capable  of 
reproducing  and  growing,  since  these  functions 
imply  an  organization  based  on  hereditary  experi- 
ences, memories,  and  processes  which  there  is  little 
hope  of  blindly  imitating.  Brooks  eloquently,  if 
not  convincingly,  touched  the  heart  of  the  difficulty 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  15 

when  he  said :  "The  essence  of  Hfe  is  not  protoplasm, 
but  purpose."  Yet  we  see  about  us  animals  and 
plants  which  are  continually  changing  dead  into 
Uving  substance.  That  these  transformations  are 
accomplished  by  the  aid  of  perfectly  definite  physical 
and  chemical  mechanisms  is  a  reasonable  belief,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that  much  is  to  be  learned  by  the 
further  investigation  and  imitation  of  these  natural 
processes.  But  we  must  not  forget  the  possibihty 
that  Hfe  has  never  had  a  beginning  at  all,  or  that  it 
is  as  old  as  matter  itself.  To  so  good  a  mind  as  that 
of  Helmholtz  this  seemed  a  not  unreasonable  view. 
And  Helmholtz  asked  ''whether  seeds  have  not  been 
carried  from  one  planet  to  another  and  been  developed 
everywhere  where  they  have  fallen  on  a  fertile 
soil."  This  hypothesis  of  panspermia  has  latterly 
been  ingeniously  extended  by  Arrhenius  and  deserves 
serious  attention. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  origin  and  nature  of  living 
protoplasm  is  veiled  in  the  utmost  obscurity.  For 
many  investigators  this  obscurity  seems  so  serious 
as  to  discourage  attempts  to  create  living  from  dead 
material;  others,  however,  feel  that  it  is  essential 
to  continue  to  make  trials  in  this  direction,  if  only  in 
the  hope  of  incidentally  gaining  a  deeper  insight 
into  hving  processes.  What  here  especially  con- 
cerns us  is  that  even  if  the  attempts  to  make  liv- 
ing matter  should  ultimately  fail,  this  failure  would 
not  necessarily  compel  us  to  abandon  a  mechanistic 
hypothesis  of  living  material.     In  other  words,  the 


16     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

circumstance  that  we  cannot  create  living  matter 
would  be  no  proof  that  such  matter  did  not  originally- 
come  into  existence  through  the  play  of  physical  and 
chemical  agencies  or  other  natural  forces. 

We  may  now  consider  the  second  feature  which 
distinguishes  living  beings  from  artificial  machines 
—  the  power  of  metabolism.  The  metabolic  power 
consists  of  the  ability  of  the  living  protoplasm 
simultaneously  to  build  up  some  materials  (hving 
or  dead)  and  to  break  down  others.  These  processes 
of  metabolism  must  be  pictured  as  keeping  the  cell 
contents  in  a  continual  state  of  flux.  In  youth  the 
constructive  processes  preponderate  over  the  de- 
structive; in  old  age  the  destructive  processes  are 
more  active  than  the  constructive;  in  adult  life 
there  is  an  approximate  balance  between  the  forces 
that  upbuild  and  those  that  break  down.  It  has 
been  already  mentioned  that  ferments  or  enzymes 
play  a  large  part  in  the  chemical  processes  of  the 
body.  This  holds  true  both  of  the  upbuilding  or 
synthetic  processes  and  of  the  destructive  ones. 
Physiologists  are  now  agreed  that  there  are  enzymes 
which  break  down  sugars,  enzymes  which  break 
down  fats,  and  enzymes  which  break  down  proteins. 
In  recent  years  there  has  come  to  light  a  singular  and 
unpredicted  property  of  these  enzymes.  This  is 
the  reversibility  of  their  action  under  special  condi- 
tions. Croft  Hill  showed  that  under  certain  condi- 
tions the  sugar-splitting  enzymes  can  combine  two 
molecules  of  a  simple  sugar  into  one  molecule  of  a 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  17 

more  complex  one;  Kastle  and  Loewenhart  caused 
a  fat-splitting  enzyme  to  form  the  ethyl  ester  of 
butyric  acid  from  butyric  acid  and  ethyl  alcohol; 
Taylor  succeeded  in  making  a  protein-splitting 
enzyme  (a  special  trypsin)  build  up  a  simple  protein 
from  its  cleavage  products.  That  the  same  enzymes 
which  break  down  sugars,  fats,  and  proteins  may, 
under  suitable  conditions,  reverse  their  action  so 
as  to  construct  the  more  complex  molecules  from 
simpler  ones,  is  a  conception  of  the  very  first  impor- 
tance for  biology.  Obviously  it  gives  a  substantial 
clew  to  the  way  in  which  living  protoplasm  is  built 
up  in  the-  course  of  ordinary  metabolism  and  during 
the  process  of  growth. 

The  breakdown  of  protoplasm  and  foodstuffs  in 
normal  metabolism  is  accomplished  in  part  through 
the  agency  of  oxidation,  which  may  properly  be 
regarded  as  typifying  the  most  fundamental  kind 
of  chemical  processes  in  the  living  cells.  It  has 
been  indicated  that  there  is  a  resemblance  between 
the  combustions  in  an  engine  of  human  make  and 
the  combustion  of  food  by  living  animals.  Let  us 
discuss  this  resemblance  further.  For  if  it  can  be 
shown  that  the  resemblance  is  essentially  superficial, 
this  must  be  admitted  to  be  inimical  to  the  mechan- 
istic hypothesis ;  whilst  the  detection  of  an  essential 
identity  of  action  in  the  two  cases  must  be  regarded 
as  a  significant  support  to  this  view.  The  serious 
discussion  of  this  question  is  hardly  possible  with- 
out reference  to  some  technical  details  of  a  chemical 


18     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

nature.  On  account  of  the  definiteness  and  impor- 
tance of  the  evidence  so  obtainable  I  prefer  to  risk 
the  introduction  of  some  unfamiUar  facts  rather  than 
the  exclusion  of  highly  significant  evidence. 

The  cells  of  the  animal  body  are  mainly  nourished 
by  taking  up  three  kinds  of  foodstuffs  which  are 
widely  different  in  their  chemical  character.  These 
foodstuffs  are,  first,  the  nitrogen-holding  complex 
compounds  which  we  call  proteins;  second,  fats; 
and  third,  the  carbohydrates.  When  acted  on  by 
certain  enzymes  or  ferments,  the  substances  belong- 
ing to  these  groups  are  split  into  somewhat  smaller 
molecules  and  take  up  the  elements  of  water.  This 
process  is  known  to  chemists  as  hydrolysis,  and  the 
products  of  the  splitting  are  called  hydrolytic  prod- 
ucts. Oxidation  in  the  animal  body  relates  mainly 
to  the  hydrolytic  products  of  the  proteins,  the  fats, 
and  the  carbohydrates.  It  is  from  the  oxidation 
of  these  substances  that  the  living  animal  organism 
derives  most  of  its  energy. 

How  are  these  various  oxidations  in  the  animal 
body  to  be  explained  ?  The  remarkable  thing  about 
them  is  that  they  go  on  so  energetically  at  the  low 
temperature  of  the  animal  body.  It  is  obvious  to 
any  one  who  thinks  at  all  on  the  subject  that  the  free 
oxygen  of  the  air  does  not  oxidize  any  of  the  common 
foodstuffs  when  these  are  exposed  to  its  action.  It 
is  true  that  there  is  some  evidence  that  the  fat 
deposits  of  Egyptiain  mummies  show  a  moderate 
degree  of  oxidation,  which  can  probably  be  attrib- 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  19 

uted  to  the  access  of  the  oxygen  of  the  air  during 
thousands  of  years.  But  this  action  is  so  sUght  that 
it  has  no  real  bearing  on  the  oxidations  here  in 
question.  Equally  inactive  is  the  oxidized  haemo- 
globin of  the  blood,  known  as  oxyhsemoglobin.  It 
has  long  been  clear  that  to  account  for  the  animal 
oxidations  we  must  seek  for  oxidizing  agents  in 
some  cell  constituents  which  get  their  oxygen  from 
the  oxyhsemoglobin  of  the  blood.  The  difficulty 
of  investigating  these  oxidizing  substances  is  very 
great  and  their  exact  identity  still  remains  un- 
revealed.  Yet  there  are  many  signs  that  these  sub- 
stances have  the  nature  of  unstable  peroxides. 
It  is  known  to  chemists  that  many  reactive  sub- 
stances, such  as  benzaldehyde,  combine  with  the 
ordinary  oxygen  of  the  air  to  form  peroxides.  These 
peroxides  can  give  up  part  of  their  oxygen  and  so 
effect  oxidations  which  otherwise  would  not  occur. 
It  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  oxidizing  enzymes 
or  oxydases  of  the  animal  tissues  are  similar  in  type 
to  the  peroxides  just  mentioned. 

If  this  hypothesis  were  true,  one  would  expect  to 
find  a  similarity  between  the  types  of  oxidative  change 
brought  about  by  tissue  oxidases  and  the  types  in- 
duced by  artificial  peroxides.  In  the  course  of  exper- 
imental studies  carried  on  by  Dakin,  a  comparison  has 
been  made  between  the  action  of  the  simplest  arti- 
ficial peroxide  —  hydrogen  peroxide  —  and  the  action 
of  the  living  animal  tissues.  This  comparison  reveals 
a  singularly  close  analogy  in  the  two  cases. 


20     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

It  is  not  claimed  that  there  are  no  differences,  but 
it  appears  in  a  high  degree  probable  that  these 
differences  are  ones  of  degree  and  not  of  essence  or 
type.  What  we  particularly  miss  in  our  laboratory 
imitations  of  the  animal  oxidations  is  the  regulation 
of  the  stages  of  combustion.  But  these  differences 
are  doubtless  due  to  the  complexity  of  the  organic 
oxidizing  ferments  or  enzymes  and  probably  to  their 
specificity.  We  know  that  when  plant  bacteria  fix 
nitrogen  for  the  use  of  plants  they  do  so  by  stages. 
One  group  of  bacteria  oxidizes  the  nitrogen  to  nitrites, 
and  a  distinct  group  oxidizes  the  nitrites  to  nitrates. 
These  bacteria  doubtless  work  by  means  of  oxidative 
enzymes  or  oxidases  and  thus  afford  us  a  suggestive 
illustration  for  the  differentiation  of  oxidative  labor 
that  probably  goes  on  in  the  living  cells. 

A  third  feature  of  difference  between  the  animal 
organism  and  the  mechanism  of  human  make  is  the 
power  of  reproduction.  Clearly  the  process  of 
reproduction  has  no  analogy  in  the  world  of  un- 
organized things.  The  process  cannot  be  explained 
on  any  mechanistic  or  physicochemical  grounds  at 
present  within  our  ken,  even  in  the  case  of  the 
simplest  process  of  reproduction,  as  where  a  yeast 
plant  divides  by  budding  and  fission.  In  the  case 
of  reproduction  in  the  higher  animals  the  changes  in 
the  egg  cell  that  attend  and  follow  impregnation  are 
of  an  extremely  complex  nature,  and  it  can  hardly 
be  considered  surprising  that  the  dynamics  of  cell 
division  should  be  wrapped  in  obscurity.     But  the 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  21 

microscopical  appearances  within  the  egg  during  the 
period  of  cell  division  are  such  as  to  suggest  that  quite 
definite  physicochemical  processes  have  been  set 
in  train  by  the  action  of  the  sperm.  There  are 
numerous  indications,  which  need  not  be  put  for- 
ward, that  specific  enzymes  are  concerned  in  promi- 
nent and  even  determining  ways  with  the  entire 
mechanism  of  cell  division.  The  very  narrow  limits 
within  which  these  processes  of  cell  division  occur 
make  it  extremely  difficult  to  investigate  the  chemi- 
cal aspect  of  the  problem.  Yet  even  here  there 
are  signs  of  progress,  and  it  seems  not  unreasonable 
to  hope  that  human  ingenuity  will  one  day  provide 
the  conditions  for  the  serious  study  of  the  chemical 
forces  inseparably  bound  up  with  this  problem.  In 
other  words,  we  may  say  that  despite  our  present 
ignorance,  the  reproductive  process  in  the  cell  shows 
morphological  and  other  signs  of  resting  on  physico- 
chemical  forces.  How  far  these  or  other  natural 
forces  will  be  shown  to  be  responsible  for  cell  divi- 
sion no  one  can  say,  but  it  is  reasonable  to  expect 
great  advances  in  the  direction  of  an  increasingly 
refined  and  more  adequate  understanding  of  these 
forces. 

A  fourth  distinctive  feature  of  the  animal  organism 
is  its  capacity  to  grow.  A  highly  noteworthy  thing 
about  this  capacity  to  grow  is  the  evidence  of  defi- 
nite regulation  of  the  growing  parts.  This  regula- 
tion is  so  orderly  and  precise  as  to  excite  wonder  and 
admiration.    How  does  it  happen  that  the  various 


22    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

parts  of  the  body  assume  definite  forms  and  sizes? 
Why  does  the  skin  of  the  human  thumb  assume  mark- 
ings so  sharply  defined  as  to  be  in  a  singular  degree 
characteristic  of  the  individual  —  sufficiently  so, 
indeed,  to  serve  in  fixing  the  identity  of  criminals? 
How  is  it  that  the  cells  forming  the  nose  of  a  child 
arrange  themselves  into  an  organ  closely  resembling 
in  every  detail  that  of  a  parent,  instead  of  assuming 
a  quite  different  form  and  size  ?  The  clew  to  such 
questions  is  doubtless  to  be  sought  in  properties 
possessed  by  the  well-defined  rod-shaped  masses 
of  matter  in  the  nuclei  of  the  germ  cells  at  the  time 
of  fertilization,  which  are  known  as  chromosomes. 
These  are  now  generally  recognized  to  be  at  least  an 
important  factor  in  hereditary  transmission,  as  will 
be  pointed  out  in  discussing  the  law  of  Mendelian 
heredity  and  the  recent  developments  of  biological 
science  in  relation  to  sex.  But  none  of  the  facts 
now  known  to  us  shed  any  real  light  on  the  way  in 
which  the  forces  of  regulation  are  operative  in  the 
growing  cells.  The  instances  of  regulation  of  growth 
which  I  have  just  cited  are  sufficiently  puzzling. 
But  they  are  at  least  referable,  as  already  stated, 
to  an  hereditary  mechanism  of  some  sort.  There 
are,  however,  still  more  enigmatical  cases.  I  will 
cite  the  case  of  the  regeneration  of  the  lens  of  the 
eye  in  the  tadpoles  of  salamanders,  —  a  case  which 
has  been  assumed  by  some  biologists  to  be  incapable 
of  mechanical  explanation.  If  we  remove  the  crys- 
talline lens  from  the  eye  of  the  young  salamander 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  23 

tadpole,  the  animal  soon  forms  a  new  one,  thus  mak- 
ing the  eye  apparently  as  efficient  as  before.  That 
there  should  be  a  regeneration  of  the  lens  at  all  is,  of 
course,  in  itself  a  notable  thing.  But  in  this  case 
there  is  something  more  to  consider  than  the  fact  of 
regeneration  —  something  which  presents  the  embry- 
ologist  with  an  extremely  puzzling  problem.  For 
the  new  lens  is  not  made  in  the  same  way  or  from  the 
same  kind  of  material  as  the  old  one.  In  normal 
development  the  lens  is  formed  from  the  outer  skin, 
or  ectoderm,  of  the  head.  When  the  lens  is  regen- 
erated, it  is  built  up  by  cells  from  the  iris,  which 
forms  the  edge  of  the  optic  cup,  and  this  originates 
in  the  embryo  as  an  outgrowth  from  the  brain  itself, 
and  not  from  the  outer  skin.  Neither  the  animal 
itself  nor  any  of  its  ancestors  can  reasonably  be 
supposed  to  have  become  habituated  to  such  a 
method  of  regeneration.  It  is  therefore  difficult 
to  see  how  such  a  singular  power  as  this  can  have 
been  acquired  and  how  it  can  be  a  potential  quality 
in  the  cells  of  the  organism.  Some  naturalists  are 
disposed  to  attribute  these  properties  to  some  sort 
of  intelligent  purposive  action.  But  if  this  is  really 
the  case,  why  do  the  higher  animals  and  man  lack  the 
help  of  similar  favoring  activities?  The  truth  is 
that  the  supporter  of  the  mechanistic  view  of  life  is 
brought  to  a  standstill  by  questions  of  this  nature 
in  the  sense  that  he  can  see  no  hope  of  solving  them 
in  the  near  future  on  the  basis  of  any  known  physico- 
chemical  forces.    Writers  who  have  felt  this  diffi- 


24     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

culty  have  urged  that  we  must  call  in  to  our  aid  the 
supposition  that  there  is  something  analogous  to  a 
form  of  intelligence,  which  regulates  and  controls 
growth  and  Hfe  processes  generally.  Views  of  this 
sort  signify  a  return  to  a  vitalistic  type  of  doctrine, 
and  differ  from  older  views  mainly  in  the  definite- 
ness  of  the  evidence  that  seems  to  compel  their 
adoption.  They  may  properly  be  thought  of  as 
constituting  a  "neo-vitalistic"  teaching.  But  this 
teaching,  like  all  vitalistic  doctrines,  impresses  us 
with  its  unsubstantial  or  negative  quality.  It  re- 
minds us  of  the  words  put  by  Goethe  into  the  mouth 
of  Mephistopheles,  ''Und  gerade  da  wo  die  Begriffe 
fehlen  stellt  sich  zur  rechten  Zeit  ein  Wort  herein." 
What  should  be  the  attitude  of  those  who  seek  the 
truth  regarding  this  neo-vitalistic  doctrine  —  this 
modern  and  legitimate  representative  of  an  idea  that 
has  occupied  the  attention  of  thinking  men  in  every 
period  of  history?  The  question  whether  the  ani- 
mal organism  is  merely  a  machine  like  an  engine 
or  clock,  dependent  on  physicochemical  forces,  or 
is  "animated"  by  a  specific  "vital  principle"  or 
"vital  force"  is  surely  one  of  the  most  momentous 
in  its  relation  to  man's  place  in  nature.  In  our  brief 
review  of  the  resemblances  and  differences  between 
the  animal  mechanism  and  the  machine  of  human 
make,  we  have  been  brought  face  to  face  with  two 
incontrovertible  facts  of  the  largest  significance. 
On  the  one  hand,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  body  is  a 
machine.    Not  only  does  it  make  use  of  the  simple 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  25 

mechanical  devices  such  as  levers,  pumps,  and 
valves,  but  it  apparently  obeys  the  universal  law  of 
the  conservation  of  energy.  The  fundamental  pro- 
cesses of  oxidation  in  the  body  pass  through  essen- 
tially the  same  stages  as  in  the  case  of  oxidations 
under  the  control  of  the  chemist.  We  may  thus  go 
so  far  as  to  say  that  some  animal  processes  even  of 
an  elementary  sort  are  explicable  on  the  basis  of 
physical  and  chemical  laws.  But  on  the  other  hand, 
we  are  confronted  with  occurrences  in  the  animal 
body  which  at  least  temporarily  put  an  obstacle  in 
the  way  of  our  progress  along  this  path.  We  are, 
for  example,  unable  to  offer  even  a  remotely  satis- 
factory solution  of  the  directive  activities  which  we 
see  at  work.  Does  this  situation  make  it  necessary 
for  us,  as  persons  honestly  in  pursuit  of  truth,  to 
give  up  the  mechanistic  hypothesis  of  life  and 
declare  ourselves  to  be  vitalists  ?  I  believe  we  are  by 
no  means  in  this  position.  The  reason  we  are  not 
in  this  position  is  because  science  is  progressive, 
and  while  there  is  progress  it  is  undeniable  that 
there  is  a  possibility,  be  it  ever  so  remote,  of  reaching 
a  satisfactory  explanation  of  vital  phenomena, — 
that  is,  an  explanation  in  accord  with  recognized 
laws  of  nature.  The  history  of  physical  and  chemical 
discovery  since  Lavoisier  and  Faraday,  and  bio- 
logical discovery  since  Schleider  and  Schwann, 
Baer,  Darwin,  and  Pasteur,  forces  us  to  admit  that 
the  events  of  the  nineteenth  century  have  made  a 
revolution  in  men's  minds.     The  discoveries  of  that 


26     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

century  have  made  it  possible  to  understand  phe- 
nomena of  life  to  which  the  eighteenth  century  fur- 
nished no  clews.  Immanuel  Kant  was  utterly 
hostile  to  the  mechanistic  conception.  In  an  oft- 
quoted  passage  he  says :  "It  is  quite  certain  that  we 
cannot  become  adequately  acquainted  with  organ- 
ized creatures  and  their  hidden  potentialities  by 
means  of  the  merely  mechanical  principles  of  nature, 
much  less  can  we  explain  them ;  and  this  is  so  certain 
that  we  may  boldly  assert  that  it  is  absurd  for  man 
even  to  make  such  an  attempt  or  to  hope  that  a 
Newton  may  one  day  arise  who  will  make  the  pro- 
duction of  a  blade  of  grass  comprehensible  to  us 
according  to  natural  laws  that  have  not  been  ordered 
by  design.  Such  an  insight  we  must  absolutely 
deny  to  men."  But  Kant  elsewhere  admits  that 
comparative  anatomy  gives  us  a  ray  of  hope  that 
something  may  be  accomplished  by  the  aid  of  the 
"principle  of  the  mechanism  of  nature."  Would 
not  Kant  have  consistently  widened  his  expression 
of  hope  had  he  been  in  possession  of  the  facts  of 
biology  that  are  known  to  us  to-day? 

We  have,  indeed,  not  yet  reached  the  time  when 
reason  compels  us  to  embrace  the  hypothesis  of  a 
vital  force.  So  long  as  the  biological  sciences  ad- 
vance, new  territories  are  certain  to  be  reclaimed 
from  the  gossamer  kingdom  of  vitalism.  If  it  ever 
happens  that  science  ceases  to  make  new  discoveries 
in  biology  and  the  human  mind  ceases  to  grow  in 
capacity,  the  time  will  have  come  to  turn  seriously 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  27 

to  vitalism.  If  we  accept  vitalism  in  the  present 
state  of  science  as  a  substitute  for  the  mechanistic 
hypothesis  of  life,  we  must  do  so  with  the  knowledge 
that  a  stimulating  working  hypothesis  is  being  dis- 
placed by  one  which  holds  out  no  helping  hand  to 
the  investigator.  For  we  cannot  look  on  a  belief  in 
vitalism  except  as  an  act  of  faith.  The  conception 
is  too  vague,  too  inexpressible  in  terms  that  are 
clearly  intelligible,  to  serve  as  a  real  aid  to  the 
progress  of  scientific  thought.  There  is  little  room 
for  doubt  that  the  mechanistic  theory  is  the  one 
which  now  best  serves  the  interests  of  humanity. 
And  it  seems  to  me  this  position  is  defensible  even  if 
one  is  prepared  to  admit  that  there  is  little  proba- 
bility of  the  human  mind  being  able  to  resolve 
finally  the  phenomena  of  life  and  matter.  For  this 
admission  does  not  imply  that  living  organisms  are 
not  in  all  respects  mechanisms.  The  failure  to 
understand  all  the  forces  at  work  in  the  mechanism 
may  perhaps  be  due  to  the  limited  grasp  of  human 
faculty.  And  it  is  especially  in  the  reconstruction 
of  the  phenomena  of  the  present  from  the  occurrences 
of  the  past  that  the  human  mind  falls  short. 

Those  who  are  disposed  to  turn  towards  vitalism 
in  order  to  get  a  better  explanation  of  the  properties 
of  living  matter  should  not  overlook  the  limitations 
that  bound  our  understanding  of  the  forces  that 
dominate  the  inorganic  universe.  So  long  as  we 
have  no  real  explanation  for  facts  so  elementary  as 
the  contrast  between  the  solubility  of  calcium  chloride 


28     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

in  water  and  the  relative  insolubility  of  calcium 
carbonate,  it  cannot  be  said  that  our  grasp  of  physico- 
chemical  forces  is  all-embracing.  Hence  we  should 
not  be  hasty  in  assuming  that  physicochemical 
forces  do  not  explain  the  phenomena  of  life.  All 
we  can  say  is  that  what  we  now  know  of  them  fails 
fully  to  explain  these  phenomena.  The  increasing 
profundity  of  scientific  research  warrants  us  in  con- 
fidently predicting  the  discovery  of  new  physical 
and  chemical  energies,  or  at  least  new  phases  of 
such  energies.  Biological  knowledge  began  with 
anatomical  observations.  Early  histological  studies 
seemed  to  promise  more  for  a  deeper  insight  than 
anatomy  alone  could  give.  The  cell  theory  of 
Virchow  raised  hopes  that  we  should  see  yet  deeper 
into  the  organization  of  living  matter.  But  soon 
the  methods  of  studying  structure  were  taxed  to  the 
utmost  without  a  corresponding  gain  in  the  depth 
of  our  understanding.  Then  it  became  clear  that 
the  study  of  the  organization  of  the  cell  must  include 
the  study  of  the  operation  of  physical  and  chemical 
forces  within  the  narrow  limits  of  the  cellular  struc- 
tures. Noteworthy  advances  rewarded  the  pursuit 
of  such  studies.  Yet  the  most  advanced  biologists 
are  by  no  means  satisfied  with  the  application  of 
existing  chemical  and  physical  methods.  This  is 
shown  clearly  by  a  strong  desire  to  utilize  the  newest 
conceptions  of  matter,  which  deal  not  merely  with 
the  forces  exhibited  by  atoms  as  such,  but  with  the 
energies   that   govern   the   properties   of   particles 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  29 

smaller  than  atoms  —  the  electrons  or  corpuscles. 
So  long  as  the  point  of  view  in  biology  continues  to 
deepen  without  intermission,  is  it  unreasonable  to 
believe  that  the  most  satisfying  explanation  of  life 
will  ever  be  one  which  has  its  basis  in  the  operations 
of  natural  forces  ? 


m 

Let  us  now  turn  aside  from  the  main  current  of  our 
discussion  of  the  animal  body  as  a  mechanism,  in 
order  to  glance  at  the  analogy  offered  by  this  doc- 
trine to  large  groups  of  human  beings  living  under 
the  conditions  of  organized  society. 

The  human  body  has  many  times  been  compared 
with  a  republic  in  which  the  component  parts,  while 
living  largely  independent  existences,  live  for  the 
good  of  the  whole.  Despite  the  fact  that  the  com- 
parison is  one  which  quite  fails  in  several  important 
respects,  it  is  not  without  the  merit  of  verisimilitude 
in  some  directions  and  offers  a  suggestive  means  of 
exhibiting  certain  peculiarities  of  bodily  organiza- 
tion. The  comparison  demands  that  the  different 
types  of  cells  in  an  individual  be  Hkened  to  the  vari- 
ous types  of  workers  in  a  state.  But  the  similarity 
between  worker  and  cell  obviously  breaks  down  in 
at  least  two  important  directions.  Not  only  do  all 
the  workers  of  a  state  constantly  shift  their  position 
with  respect  to  each  other,  but  what  is  still  more 
important,  they  are  at  liberty  to  alter  their  occupa- 


30    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

tions  from  time  to  time.  In  the  cell  republic  the 
greater  number  of  the  living  elements  or  cells  main- 
tain approximately  the  same  position  with  regard 
to  each  other.  Relatively  few  types  of  cells  are 
ambulatory.  Moreover,  the  cells  are  definitely  com- 
mitted to  their  occupation ;  once  a  liver  cell,  always 
a  liver  cell.  This  arrangement,  so  clearly  in  the 
interest  of  efficiency,  is  one  which  the  builders  of 
states  might  do  well  to  ponder  and  perhaps  to 
imitate.  There  is  another  striking  contrast.  The 
maintenance  of  the  state  is,  broadly  speaking, 
dependent  on  the  use  of  the  reproductive  powers  of 
the  individuals  which  comprise  it.  The  maintenance 
of  the  human  individual  depends,  indeed,  on  a  power 
of  renewal  possessed  by  the  individual  cells.  But 
many  types  of  cells  have  only  a  feeble  or  question- 
able power  of  reproduction.  For  example,  neither 
nerve  cells  nor  muscle  cells  regenerate  if  injured, 
except  in  an  imperfect  way.  And  not  only  must 
the  Hfe  of  the  individual  come  to  an  end,  —  which 
theoretically  need  never  happen  to  a  state,  — 
but  the  reproduction  of  the  individual  is  intrusted 
to  specific  cells  that  have  been  set  aside  for  the 
purpose. 

Yet  the  comparison  between  state  and  Uving  body 
holds  good  in  several  noteworthy  ways.  There  is, 
first  of  all,  a  remarkable  subdivision  of  labor.  In  the 
animal  body  are  represented  parts  or  cells  which 
govern  and  coordinate,  parts  which  prepare  and 
transform   foodstuffs,  parts  which   act   as   carriers 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  31 

and  distributors  of  materials  which  yield  energy, 
parts  which  get  rid  of  waste  materials,  and  still  other 
parts  which  have  the  function  of  ridding  the  organ- 
ism of  injurious  invaders.  Each  of  these  functions 
has  its  counterpart  in  a  variety  of  labor  done  by  a 
citizen.  Now  it  is  clear  that  division  of  labor  is 
inseparable  from  interdependence,  ahke  of  the  tj'pes 
of  workers  that  make  a  state  and  of  the  cells  that 
compose  a  living  body.  As  the  various  kinds  of 
factories  make  different  things  necessary  to  the 
healthful  life  of  a  community,  so  do  various  special 
kinds  of  cells  make  substances  required  by  other 
parts.  The  cells  of  the  adrenal  glands,  of  the 
pituitary  gland,  of  the  thyroid  gland,  of  the  sexual 
glands,  of  the  duodenal  mucous  membrane,  and  of 
the  pancreas,  each  make  substances  essential  to 
life  or  needed  for  the  normal  maintenance  of  the 
body.  In  return,  these  cells  get  not  merely  their 
food  from  the  blood,  but  in  some  cases  also  substances 
of  a  very  special  character  needed  for  the  performance 
of  their  special  duties.  The  waterways,  the  roads, 
and  the  railroads  may  be  roughly  likened  to  the 
lymphatics  and  blood  vessels.  They  are  the  neces- 
sary channels  for  the  exchange  of  commodities,  on 
the  one  hand,  and  of  nutritive  and  waste  substances, 
on  the  other.  Just  as  the  prolonged  obstruction  of 
the  roads  and  railroads  of  a  district  may  give  rise 
to  famine  and  possibly  depopulation,  so  the  obstruc- 
tion of  an  artery  (where  there  is  no  compensatory 
flow  of  blood  through  other  arteries)  gives  rise  to  a 


32     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

cessation  of  metabolism  in  the  tributary  parts  and 
may  even  cause  local  death  of  the  tissues. 

Perhaps  the  most  significant  likeness  between  a 
federal  state  and  a  living  body  lies  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  government.  A  central  governmental  organ- 
ization of  much  complexity,  connected  with  sub- 
sidiary and  similar  organizations  which  ramify  by 
telegraph  to  the  remotest  governed  parts,  typifies 
the  central  nervous  system,  the  sympathetic  systems 
of  ganglia,  and  other  ganglionic  systems  connected 
with  nearly  all  parts  of  the  body  through  the  agency 
of  nerves  and  nerve  fibers.  Being  continually  in- 
formed of  the  needs  and  conditions  of  all  its  parts 
by  means  of  stimuli  carried  centrally  through  sensory 
pathways,  the  central  nervous  system  makes  ade- 
quate response  through  the  agency  of  those  struc- 
tures which  preside  over  the  muscles,  the  blood 
vessels,  the  glands,  and  other  parts  of  vital  impor- 
tance. Through  the  agency  of  consciousness  the 
muscular  system  is  brought  under  a  nice  control  and 
innumerable  fine  adaptations  are  learned  and  con- 
stantly practiced.  By  means  of  an  indescribably 
intricate  and  labile  mechanism  the  nervous  system 
integrates  and  coordinates  sensations  and  feelings  in 
such  a  way  as  to  regulate  beneficially  the  relations 
not  only  of  the  various  parts  to  each  other,  but  also 
of  the  entire  individual  to  its  surroundings.  In 
other  words,  the  nervous  mechanism  typifies  in  its 
activities  at  once  a  ministry  of  the  interior  and  a 
ministry  of  foreign   affairs.    Notable  is  the  even 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  33 

tenor  of  this  nervous  control,  which  is  rarely  exerted 
in  the  interest  of  the  organism  as  a  whole.  There 
is  here  an  automatic  consistency  of  action,  usually 
without  discernible  favoritism  or  neglect  toward 
any  part,  —  a  consistency  which  might  well  be 
taken  as  a  standard  for  emulation  in  the  govern- 
ment of  a  state. 

Although  the  nerve  cells  and  their  prolongations 
quite  obviously  constitute  a  numerous  ruling  caste, 
the  functions  of  the  other  cells  are  so  apportioned  as 
nowhere  to  reveal  any  dependence  that  can  be  con- 
strued by  the  human  mind  as  a  sign  of  specific 
inferiority.  In  other  words,  all  types  of  cells  are 
so  essential  to  the  prolonged  welfare  of  the  entire 
organism  that  none  suffer  in  dignity  through  any 
comparison.  Yet  it  is  undeniable  that  the  nerve 
cell,  so  labile  and  varied  in  its  actions,  so  shrouded 
in  the  mysteries  belonging  to  the  transcendent  func- 
tion of  consciousness,  so  inapproachable  in  its 
chemical  dynamics,  excites  a  livelier  interest  than 
a  bone  cell,  or  even  a  kidney  cell.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  careful  consideration  of  the  nature  of  these 
different  sorts  of  cells  shows  that  each  type  has  its 
compensating  features.  The  very  reactivity  of  the 
nerve  cell  exposes  it  to  injury.  When  once  a  deep- 
seated  injury  has  been  inflicted  on  it,  the  nerve  cell 
recovers  but  imperfectly,  for  its  powers  of  regenera- 
tion are  slight.  This  limited  power  of  regeneration 
is  connected  with  the  extremely  elaborate  differen- 
tiation of  organization  in  the  nerve  cell.     For  the 


34    BIOLOGICAL   ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

nerve  cell  in  becoming  so  highly  specialized  in  some 
directions  has  lost  the  primitive  power  of  reproduc- 
tion, —  a  power  which  is  inherent  with  types  of  cells 
that  have  become  less  highly  specialized.  Contrast 
with  these  properties  of  the  nerve  cell  the  properties 
of  the  kidney  cell.  Here  we  have  a  cell  of  epitheUal 
type,  retaining  the  powers  of  regeneration  which  in 
so  remarkable  a  way  pertain  to  epithelial  cells.  If 
the  secretory  cells  of  a  healthy  kidney  are  damaged, 
the  injured  elements  are  soon  thrown  off  and  replaced 
by  new  ones.  Only  long-continued  and  deep-seated 
injury  leads  to  an  exhaustion  of  this  power  of  regen- 
eration. But,  on  the  other  hand,  the  retardation 
of  this  regenerative  capacity  is  compensated  by  the 
comparatively  low  specialization  and  differentiation 
of  the  kidney  cell. 

In  the  relationship  between  the  governing  parts  of 
the  animal  organism  and  the  parts  governed  there 
is  a  singularly  beautiful  feature  of  reciprocity. 
The  central  nervous  system,  or  federal  government, 
confers  on  the  organism  a  highly  beneficent  protec- 
tive action  which  is  unceasing.  Always  alert,  the 
governing  nervous  centers  attend  not  merely  to  the 
needs  of  the  various  parts  of  the  body  in  health, 
but  stand  ready  to  send  succor  to  such  parts  as  may 
suffer  injury  of  one  kind  or  another.  By  virtue  of 
the  superior  gift  of  consciousness  the  organism  is 
constantly  being  guided  so  as  to  secure  to  itself  the 
most  varied  advantages  while  escaping  equally 
varied   dangers.    In  return  for   these   inestimable 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  35 

services  the  different  non-nervous  cells  of  the 
organism  give  something  more  than  a  prompt  and 
blind  obedience  to  the  behests  of  the  governing 
caste  of  cells,  for  they  supply  the  nervous  structures 
with  an  abundance  of  food  and  oxygen,  and  promptly 
relieve  the  governing  structures  of  the  incubus  of 
waste  products.  Indeed,  the  body  as  a  whole  shows 
a  kind  of  preferential  attitude  toward  the  nervous 
system  in  supplying  the  brain  with  a  full  amount  of 
blood  and  oxygen  even  when  a  weak  heart  or  defec- 
tive volume  of  blood  causes  other  parts  to  suffer 
from  both  lack  of  blood  and  lack  of  oxygen.  There 
is  here  apparently  a  kind  of  automatic  recognition 
of  the  services  of  consciousness  to  the  organism. 
But  this  is  not  all.  The  discriminative  action  is  not 
limited  to  foodstuffs  and  oxygen  supply.  It  extends 
to  a  striking  protective  action  in  respect  to  poisonous 
substances.  Even  in  a  state  of  health  the  body  is 
flooded  during  digestion  with  substances  very  in- 
jurious to  the  nervous  system;  and  in  disease  there 
may  be  an  acute  or  chronic  intoxication.  But 
before  the  nervous  system  is  permitted  to  suffer, 
the  body  uses  its  utmost  resources  to  destroy  or 
detoxicate  or  eliminate  the,  poisons  in  question. 
Liver  cells,  kidney  cells,  and  white  blood  cells  are 
called  into  action  to  the  fullest  possible  extent,  and 
the  body  offers  them  up  freely  to  sacrifice  in  order 
to  screen  that  part  of  its  mechanism  which  is  at  once 
the  most  sensitive  and  the  least  capable  of  making 
a  direct  defense. 


36    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

Thus  we  see  in  the  organization  of  the  animal  body 
a  perfection  of  supplementary  and  reciprocal  rela- 
tionships between  the  various  and  unequally  differ- 
entiated parts  which  must  excite  not  merely 
admiration  but  reflection.  For  may  it  not  be  true 
that  the  organization  of  a  federal  state  can  profit 
by  applying  to  itself  some  of  the  methods  of  control 
which  have  been  so  slowly  and  painfully  developed 
in  the  federation  of  structures  which  we  have  before 
us  in  any  one  of  the  higher  animal  forms?  It  is 
certainly  true  that  nature  has  wonderfully  succeeded 
in  securing  adaptation  between  cells  having  widely 
different  properties  and  vital  interests,  and  that  these 
have  been  harmonized  for  the  good  of  the  whole. 
Probably  in  the  course  of  evolution  those  parts 
which  have  not  been  susceptible  of  adaptation  for 
the  benefit  of  the  individual  have  been  slowly 
eliminated,  and  is  this  not  almost  certainly  true  of 
the  unadaptable  and  unsocial  individuals  of  a  com- 
munity ? 

As  regards  the  form  of  governmental  control  in 
the  animal  organism,  there  is  one  additional  feature 
which  seems  worthy  of  note  in  relation  to  the  analogy 
which  has  been  drawn.  The  animal  organization 
has  been  likened  to  a  federation  or  republic.  The 
comparison  holds  good  in  so  far  as  the  body  is  made 
up  of  interdependent  parts  which  are  in  definite 
ways  common  tributaries  and  subordinates  of  the 
central  nervous  system.  But  the  relation  is  not  so 
simple  as  this.    It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  37 

a  fully  developed  cell  never  changes  its  character 
under  normal  conditions.  Now  it  is  also  true  that 
the  different  adult  cells  have  different  origins  in  an 
embryological  sense.  Early  in  development  there 
is  a  well-known  differentiation  of  the  segmented  egg 
into  three  distinct  layers  or  skins.  From  the  inner 
skin  come  the  epithelial  cells  of  the  digestive  tract 
and  digestive  glands.  From  the  middle  skin  come 
the  bones,  cartilages,  connective  tissues,  muscles, 
and  blood.  From  the  outer  layer  come  the  epithelial 
cells  of  the  skin  and,  by  a  kind  of  embryological 
jugglery,  the  nerve  cells  of  the  central  nervous 
system.  This  predestination  of  cell  character  is  in 
reality  foreshadowed  at  a  still  earlier  period  by  ter- 
ritorial differentiations  which  make  their  appearance 
soon  after  the  impregnation  and  cell  division.  We 
have,  indeed,  no  means  of  knowing  how  early  in  the 
history  of  the  germ  plasma  the  future  of  the  different 
cell  types  is  definitely  fixed.  One  thing,  however, 
is  quite  clear.  The  governing  cells  of  the  body  — 
the  nerve  cells  —  have  their  origin  in  materials 
destined  to  become  nerve  cells.  Like  other  varieties 
of  cells,  they  form  a  kind  of  caste.  The  democratic 
or  essentially  interchangeable  feature  which  is 
found  in  republican  forms  of  government  is  lacking 
here.  In  the  animal  organism  those  materials  best 
fitted  by  nature  for  government  find  their  way  to 
the  controlling  power,  while  those  materials  best 
fitted  to  serve  in  other  ways  move  with  equal 
precision  towards  their  destiny.     It  is  thus  clear 


38     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

that  the  analogy  between  the  animal  organism  and 
the  federal  form  of  government  is  incomplete  and 
requires  the  recognition  of  the  element  of  caste. 
This  element  secures  to  the  organism  the  services 
of  those  materials  best  fitted  by  nature  to  fill  the 
various  requirements  of  life.  The  organism  adapts 
itself  from  the  beginning  to  the  differing  destinies 
of  the  varied  materials  stored  in  the  egg.  In  ful- 
filling its  fate,  it  is  thus  spared  the  losses  of  energy 
that  come  from  human  competitions  which  are  made 
possible  only  by  the  failure  to  discern  the  inherent 
difference  in  powers  which  determine  the  careers  of 
the  individual  citizens  of  a  state. 

I  question  if  one  can  with  advantage  carry  much 
farther  the  comparison  of  the  living  organism  and 
the  state  politic.  But  no  less  a  writer  than  Herbert 
Spencer  tried  to  force  the  analogy.  As  the  blood- 
making  layer  of  the  embryo,  the  mesoblast,  serves 
for  the  carriage  of  nutriment  from  the  inner  or 
mucous  layer  to  the  outer  layer,  or  epiblast,  Spencer 
sees  in  this  a  parallel  to  what  occurs  in  social  prog- 
ress. He  says:  "Between  the  governing  and  the 
governed  there  at  first  exists  no  intermediate  class ; 
and  even  in  some  societies  that  have  reached  con- 
siderable size  there  are  scarcely  any  but  the  nobles 
and  their  kindred  on  the  one  hand,  and  their  serfs 
on  the  other;  the  social  structure  being  such  that 
transfer  of  commodities  takes  place  directly  from 
slaves  to  their  masters.  But  in  societies  of  a  higher 
type  there  grows  up  between  these  two  primitive 


THE  MECHANISTIC  CONCEPTION  39 

classes  another  —  the  trading  or  middle  class. 
Equally  at  first  as  now,  we  may  see  that,  speaking 
generally,  this  middle  class  is  the  analogue  of  the 
middle  layer  in  the  embryo."  The  argument  seems 
to  me  based  on  very  dubious  biology,  since  the  bones 
and  muscles,  as  well  as  the  vascular  system,  have 
their  origin  in  the  middle  layer  of  the  embryo,  and 
though  forming  a  large  bulk  of  the  entire  body  have 
nothing  to  do  with  transportation.  The  high  grade 
of  differentiation  of  the  muscles  allies  them  to  the 
governing  rather  than  to  the  middle  classes,  if  this 
analogy  must  be  used  here,  and  the  bones  hardly 
fit  into  the  prominent  distributive  action  assigned 
by  Spencer  to  the  mesoblast.  Spencer  also  finds 
in  the  red  blood  cells  a  resemblance  to  money  in 
circulation  and  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  just 
as  primitive  societies  have  no  money,  so  some  lower 
organisms  have  no  red  blood  cells.  But  he  quite 
overlooks  the  circumstance  that  in  modern  communi- 
ties business  is  carried  on  by  a  credit  system  with 
ever  lessening  requirements  as  to  circulating  money, 
and  that  for  this  feature  of  progress  there  appears 
to  be  no  physiological  analogue.  Again,  the  com- 
parison of  the  governing  nervous  system  to  the 
Houses  of  Parliament  suggested  by  Spencer  seems 
much  too  specific  a  limitation  of  the  social  controlling 
elements.  The  system  seems  rather  to  invite  com- 
parison with  the  sum  of  all  those  groups  of  individuals 
in  a  community  that  are  the  means  of  bringing  order 
and  coordination  into  society  whilst  influencing  its 


40     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

general  course  in  progress.  I  deem  it  unnecessary 
to  give  further  examples  of  what  appear  to  me  inapt 
analogies.  It  is  in  many  cases  impossible  to  say 
just  where  the  comparison  breaks  suflSciently  from 
the  truth  to  become  illegitimate.  If  we  beUeve  the 
simile  drawn  from  organism  and  state  to  have  a 
measure  of  merit,  we  must  guard  against  imperiling 
its  influence  by  overloading  it,  and  we  should  keep 
our  minds  open  to  the  possibility  that  widening 
intelhgence  is  likely  to  compel  the  modification  of 
even  the  most  alluring  biological  analogies  we  may 
now  cherish. 


CHAPTER  II 

GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION 

There  are  two  dominant  and  persistent  problems 
in  biology  correlated  with  definite  functional  powers 
which  lie  at  the  heart  of  human  hfe.  These  are  the 
problem  of  reproduction  and  growth,  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  problem  of  consciousness,  on  the  other. 
The  human  animal  may  be  considered  to  have  two 
sets  of  duties  and  privileges  which  transcend  all 
others :  those  connected  with  the  maintenance  of 
the  race  through  his  own  person,  and  those  connected 
with  the  growth  of  his  personality.  The  former 
duties  and  privileges  have  to  do  with  a  definite  group 
of  cells  given  over  wholly  to  the  function  of  repro- 
duction. The  latter  have  to  do  with  an  equally 
definite  type  of  cells,  the  nerve  cells  of  the  nervous 
system,  and  especially  the  cells  of  the  mantle  or 
cortex  of  the  brain  and  the  pathways  between  them. 

It  is  a  highly  clarifying  view,  and  a  wholly  legiti- 
mate one,  to  regard  the  entire  human  mechanism 
as  preeminently  subserving  these  two  sets  of  ele- 
mentarj'-  functions  —  for  reproduction  and  for  the 
higher  activities  of  the  nervous  system.  And  diffi- 
cult as  is  the  task  of  tracing  the  relations  of  these 
purposes  to  the  machinery  of  the  body,  it  is  no 

41 


42     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ungrateful  undertaking  to  show  how  essentially  sub- 
servient to  these  purposes  are  all  the  varied  struc- 
tures and  devices  of  the  human  individual. 

I 

The  cells  of  the  body  which  are  devoted  to  the 
purposes  of  reproduction  form  only  a  very  small 
portion  of  the  entire  body,  and  this  is  true  of  mam- 
mals generally  as  well  as  of  the  males  and  females 
of  the  human  species.  Yet  these  germ  cells  hold 
that  which  forms  the  basis  of  new  and  complete 
human  individuals.  The  substance  of  the  male 
germ  cell,  when  brought  into  contact  with  the  sub- 
stance of  the  female  germ  cell,  or  ovum,  leads  to  a 
fusion  of  materials  which  not  merely  secures  the 
groundwork  of  the  embryo,  but  lays  down  in  that 
embryo  the  amazing  multiplicity  of  hereditary 
materials  that  carry  recognizable  family  traits, 
physical,  mental,  temperamental.  The  painstaking 
studies  of  biologists  have  shown  us  that  these 
hereditary  qualities  are  subserved  by  an  elaborate 
cell  mechanism,  which  has  been  partially  unraveled 
in  some  of  its  complexities,  at  least  in  so  far  as  they 
have  to  do  with  structural  features.  The  impreg- 
nated egg  cell  in  the  process  of  its  first  division  into 
two  new  cells  typifies  the  entire  development  of  the 
completed  human  being.  There  within  that  minute 
compass  lie  the  materials  which  predetermine  with 
fatal  exactitude  the  future  of  the  adult  form,  its 
sex,  its  type  of  stature,  the  blending  of  the  traits 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  43 

which  it  owes  to  its  parents  and  their  parents.  It 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  if  we  could  fully  know 
the  inner  nature  of  the  processes  that  hold  sway  in 
the  dividing  egg,  we  should  hold  the  key  to  life  as  we 
see  it  in  the  adult,  for  the  macrocosm  probably 
has  no  powers  that  are  not  at  least  represented  in 
the  microcosm.  That  enzymes  have  a  large  part  in 
determining  the  play  of  these  developmental  pro- 
cesses is  all  but  certain.  The  first  stimulus  to  the 
growth  of  the  egg  must  be  due  to  enzyme  action. 
It  looks  as  if  the  question  of  sex  were  settled  by  the 
enzymes  with  which  a  portion  of  the  developmental 
machinery  is  loaded.  And  finally  it  appears  as 
if  the  hereditary  characters  themselves  were  to  be 
referred  to  a  definite  mechanism  controlled  by 
enzyme  action.  If  we  consider  the  mechanistic 
hypothesis  as  it  bears  on  the  transmission  of  hered- 
itary characters,  we  find  it  capable  of  bringing  a 
high  degree  of  order  and  simplicity  out  of  a  tangle  of 
facts  which  the  suppositions  of  vitalism  left  in  a 
state  of  confusion. 

One  of  the  most  helpful  illustrations  of  what 
biological  science  has  gained  from  the  mechanistic 
hypothesis  is  seen  in  the  Mendelian  principle  or  law 
in  heredity.  This  law  takes  its  name  from  a  gifted 
Austrian  student  and  monk,  Gregor  Mendel,  who 
made  some  extremely  acute  and  telling  observations 
on  the  transmission  of  hereditary  characters  in 
plants.  The  principle  which  he  found  to  hold  good 
for  plants  has  been  found  to  hold  good  in  the  hered- 


44     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ity  of  certain  animal  qualities,  and  while  it  has  not 
been  shown  to  apply  to  all  the  phenomena  of  heredity, 
it  has  been  a  most  welcome  discovery  to  the  biologist 
because  it  affords  something  approaching  a  demon- 
stration that  a  perfectly  definite  and  apparently 
simple  machinery  must  underlie  the  transmission 
of  hereditary  characters  in  general.  Mendel's  prin- 
ciple cannot  readily  be  stated  in  a  brief  definition 
because  it  involves  several  distinct  though  closely 
related  elements.  One  is  that  hereditary  characters 
often  show  a  remarkable  degree  of  independence, 
so  that  by  means  of  crossing  experiments  they  may 
be  combined  and  recombined  in  many  ways  without 
permanently  blending,  almost  as  if  they  were  repre- 
sented by  distinct  material  substances  which  may 
be  put  together  or  taken  apart  like  the  blocks  of  a 
building  or  the  cards  of  a  pack.  It  is  therefore 
possible  to  study  heredity  accurately  by  concentrat- 
ing the  attention  upon  only  one  or  a  few  such  "unit 
characters."  A  second  principle  is  that  in  respect 
to  hereditary  constitution  the  sexually  produced 
organism  is  of  double  or  "duplex"  composition, 
owing  to  its  origin  from  two  parents  (more  accu- 
rately from  two  germ  cells).  A  third,  and  the  one 
which  is  the  essence  of  "Mendel's  Law,"  is  that  the 
germ  cells  are  not  of  duplex,  but  of  "simplex," 
composition.  Thus,  in  respect  to  any  particular 
character,  the  germ  cells  produced  by  a  hybrid  are 
not  hybrid,  but  "pure"  ;  i.e.  possess  the  capacity 
to  transmit  but  one  of  the  two  different  characters 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  45 

united  in  the  hybrid.  Further,  when  two  different 
characters  of  the  same  general  type  (such  as  color) 
are  united  in  a  hybrid,  one  frequently  conceals  or 
''dominates"  the  other,  though  the  latter  reappears 
in  the  following  generation.  By  the  use  of  these 
principles  it  is  possible  to  make  remarkably  accurate 
predictions  of  the  results  to  be  expected  from  any 
particular  cross.  The  color  of  the  hair  in  rabbits 
and  guinea  pigs,  the  colors  of  the  plumage  in  fowls, 
the  habit  of  dancing  mice,  are  examples  of  separate 
or  ''unit"  characters,  and  show  the  phenomena  of 
Mendelian  inheritance.  An  oft-instanced  case  of 
this  Mendelian  inheritance  is  that  of  a  cross  between 
a  common  gray  mouse  and  a  white  or  albino  mouse 
of  the  same  breed.  The  hybrid  resulting  from  this 
cross  does  not  show  a  blend  of  gray  and  white,  as 
one  would  naturally  expect.  In  this  instance  only 
one  of  the  characters,  namely  gray,  appears  in  the 
offspring.  The  other  character,  the  white,  disap- 
pears from  view.  By  breeding  these  gray  hybrids 
together  both  white  and  gray  mice  appear  sepa- 
rately in  the  next  generation.  Moreover,  these 
characters  appear  in  a  definite  ratio,  there  "being  in 
the  long  run  three  mice  that  show  the  dominant 
character,  gray,  to  one  mouse  that  shows  the  reces- 
sive character,  white.  From  a  knowledge  of  this 
fundamental  Mendelian  ratio  for  a  single  pair  of 
hereditary  qualities,  it  has  been  possible  to  predict 
with  remarkable  accuracy  the  more  complex  combi- 
nations that  arise  when  a  larger  number  of  quahties 


46    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

have  to  be  taken  into  account.  Moreover,  by  means 
of  this  principle  it  has  been  possible  not  merely  to 
predict  the  outcome  of  some  complex  combinations, 
but  also  to  plan  and  breed  new  combinations  success- 
fully, much  as  one  may  sometimes  foresee  the  nature 
of  a  new  organic  chemical  compound  that  has  been 
created  by  synthesis. 

The  Mendelian  principle  has  already  been  put  to 
use  in  relation  to  certain  hereditary  characters  in 
human  beings.  An  instructive  example  relates  to 
the  color  of  the  eyes.  The  study  of  the  transmission 
of  eye  coloring  has  been  much  confused  by  the 
difficulty  of  properly  classifying  the  colors  with 
respect  to  their  purity.  A  feature  of  fundamental 
importance  is  whether  the  pigment  lies  on  the  back 
surface  of  the  iris,  as  in  pure  blue  eyes,  or  on  both 
front  and  back  surfaces,  as  in  pure  brown  or  black 
eyes,  and  in  a  less  regular  way  in  green  and  hazel 
eyes.  Careful  study  shows  that  in  heredity  the  eyes 
with  double  pigment  layers  dominate  the  eyes  with 
single  pigment  layers.  In  terms  of  the  Mendelian 
theory  the  piu-e  blue  (single  pigment  layer)  eye  is 
recessive,  the  pure  brown  (double  pigment  layer) 
is  dominant.  The  law  of  Mendelian  inheritance 
now  makes  it  possible  to  explain  why  two  parents 
with  pure  blue  eyes  never  have  a  brown  or  black- 
eyed  child,  why  the  children  of  a  pure  black-eyed 
and  a  pure  blue-eyed  parent  have  black  eyes,  and 
why  parents  with  hybrid  dark  eyes  (with  mixed 
pigment  layers)  may  have  blue-eyed  children.     If 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  47 

one  parent  has  true  blue  (recessive)  eyes  and  the 
other  hybrid  brown  eyes,  there  will  be  in  the  long 
run  (in  the  offspring  en  masse,  not  in  each  individual 
family)  an  apparently  definite  percentage  of  children 
with  blue  eyes  and  with  brown  eyes. 

There  is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the  pecul- 
iarities of  cerebral  organization  that  underlie  in- 
sanity are  subject  to  Mendelian  heredity.  On  a 
priori  grounds  we  should  expect  that  some  of  the 
offspring  of  insane  parents  would  be  exempt.  In 
cases  where  the  offspring  is  implicated  the  nervous 
abnormalities  may  appear  either  in  full  force  or  in  a 
modified  form,  as  in  a  blend.  In  either  case  there 
may  be  in  the  next  generation  a  complete  eUmina- 
tion  of  these  nervous  abnormalities  in  some  of  the 
children.  On  the  other  hand,  some  of  the  children 
may  show  a  blend  inheritance  which  is  not  elimi- 
nated in  the  next  generation. 

It  seems  probable  that  we  may  look  for  the  expla- 
nation of  Mendelian  heredity  to  the  materials  con- 
tained in  the  nuclei  of  the  germ  cells,  for  here  there 
are  found  bodies  which  have  a  history  in  the  life 
cycle  of  the  organism  showing  a  striking  parallelism 
to  the  history  of  the  ''unit  character,"  such  as  the 
gray  and  white  mentioned  in  the  case  of  the  trans- 
mission of  colors  in  mice.  These  bodies  are  well 
known  to  biologists  as  chromosomes,  the  clearly 
defined  rods  or  loops  in  the  nuclei  of  the  egg  and 
sperm  seen  at  the  time  of  fertilization  and  seen 
subsequently  every  time  a  cell  divides  in  the  course 


48    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

of  development  of  the  egg.  As  these  chromosomes 
throughout  the  entire  Hfe  history  of  an  individual 
seem  to  be  the  hneal  descendants  of  those  present 
in  the  original  fertilized  egg,  we  have  only  to  assume 
that  in  heredity  some  chromosomes  or  some  combi- 
nations of  chromosomal  parts  stand  for  one  set  of 
characters,  while  other  chromosomes  or  parts  of 
chromosomes  stand  for  different  ones.  This  assump- 
tion, which  appears  entirely  reasonable,  gives  us  the 
simplest  and  clearest  possible  physical  basis  for  the 
explanation  of  the  Mendelian  inheritance.  It  there- 
fore appears  that  the  complicated  facts  of  heredity  are 
growing  more  intelligible  in  the  light  of  a  mechanistic 
hypothesis.  Is  there,  indeed,  any  other  explanation 
which  can  compete  with  this  one  in  probability  ? 

Let  us  consider  now  the  bearing  of  the  mechanistic 
hypothesis  on  the  extremely  interesting  but  baffling 
problem  of  the  determination  of  sex.  Does  an 
animal  become  a  male  and  not  a  female,  or  a  female 
and  not  a  male,  because  of  some  obscure  accident 
or  through  the  operation  of  some  definite  mechanism  ? 
The  researches  of  Professor  Wilson  and  other 
biologists  show  in  an  unmistakable  manner  that  a 
quite  definite  relation  exists  in  some  of  the  lower 
animals  between  sex  and  certain  chromosomal 
peculiarities.  The  most  significant  evidence  yet  ob- 
tained can  be  stated  in  a  few  words.  The  funda- 
mental fact  is  that  in  some  insects  there  are  two 
kinds  of  germ  cells,  which  produce  males  and  females 
respectively.     In  a  very  few  cases  this  peculiarity 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  49 

appears  in  the  production  of  two  kinds  of  eggs, — 
large  eggs  yielding  females  and  small  eggs  yielding 
males.  More  usually  the  sexual  predestination  is 
seen  not  in  the  egg  cells  but  in  the  male  germ  cells, 
or  spermatozoa.  The  male  animal  possesses  two 
kinds  of  spermatozoa,  equal  in  number.  One  kind 
makes  males,  the  other  kind  makes  females.  In  this 
case  the  difference  between  the  two  kinds  of  sperm 
cells  goes  hand  in  hand  with  a  highly  remarkable 
difference  in  the  nuclear  substance  of  these  cells. 
The  sperm  cells  which  make  females  have  one  or 
more  chromosomes  in  excess  of  the  number  pos- 
sessed by  those  sperm  cells  that  make  males.  Where 
the  female-producing  sperms  have  one  more  chromo- 
some than  the  male-producing  sperms,  the  extra 
chromosome  is  a  peculiar  one,  often  visibly  dis- 
tinguishable from  the  others  in  size  and  in  certain 
pecuUarities  of  behavior.  It  is  very  noteworthy  that, 
owing  to  this  pecuUarity,  the  body  cells  of  the  female 
always  have  one  more  chromosome  than  the  male. 
Similarly,  it  has  been  found  that  where  the  sperms 
yielding  females  have  two  or  three  more  chromosomes 
than  the  sperms  'yielding  males,  there  is  a  corre- 
sponding excess  of  chromosomes  in  the  body  cells 
of  the  females. 

In  the  phylloxerans  and  aphids  every  fertilized 
egg  makes  a  female.  The  explanation  of  this  extraor- 
dinary fact  has  been  furnished  by  the  experimental 
biologist  Morgan.  It  is  that  in  these  cases  the  male- 
producing  spermatozoa  are  rudimentary  and  with- 


60    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

out  function.  But  if  the  spermatozoa  are  thus  in- 
efficient in  the  production  of  males,  how  is  the  species 
of  phylloxerans  maintained?  The  answer  is  that 
the  females  reproduce  without  fertilization  (that  is, 
by  parthenogenesis)  for  several  generations,  always, 
however,  producing  females.  Ultimately  the  par- 
thenogenetic  females  produce  males.  Very  signifi- 
cantly, and  consistently  with  what  has  already  been 
said,  this  formation  of  males  is  attended  by  the 
loss  of  a  chromosome  from  each  egg  destined  to 
make  a  male.  A  similar  explanation  probably 
applies  to  the  bees,  although  this  has  not  yet  been 
proved.  These  striking  observations  in  animals 
have  a  remarkable  analogy  in  some  flowering  plants. 
Correns  has  shown  in  cases  of  plants  where  the  sexes 
are  separate  that  half  the  pollen  grains  are  female 
makers  and  half  are  male  makers.  These  are  the 
most  obvious  and  vital  facts  at  present  known. 
There  is  indirect  evidence  which  makes  it  probable 
that  sex  is  predetermined  in  man  and  in  the  higher 
animals,  as  in  the  insects  and  related  animals.  The 
microscopical  evidence  of  this  is  now  lacking,  but 
will  doubtless  be  forthcoming. 

These  facts  tend  to  strengthen  our  fatalistic  beliefs. 
That  sex  is  determined  at  the  instant  of  conception 
is  in  itself  a  remarkable  thing.  And  if  this  deter- 
mination depends  on  the  operation  of  one  or  more 
specialized  chromosomes,  this  result  is  a  highly 
significant  contribution  to  the  mechanistic  basis 
of  vital  phenomena. 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  51 


II 

While  we  canot  fail  to  recognize  that  it  is  an  im- 
mense gain  to  biological  science  to  know  that  the 
chromosomes  may  be  the  effective  agents  in  the 
determination  of  sex  and  may  give  us  a  definite 
mechanistic  explanation  of  Mendelian  inheritance, 
yet  we  should  not  deceive  ourselves  as  to  the  magni- 
tude of  the  task  which  is  still  before  us,  or  the  limi- 
tations of  our  actual  knowledge  of  heredity.  If 
we  ask  ourselves  how  the  chromosomes  act  as  the 
carriers  of  hereditary  qualities,  we  are  at  once  con- 
fronted by  grave  difficulties.  Let  us  take,  for 
example,  the  problem  of  the  inheritance  of  that 
racial  memory  which  we  call  instinct.  We  know 
that  as  soon  as  a  chick  leaves  its  shell  it  begins  to 
peck  in  search  of  food.  This  action  is  instinctive 
in  the  sense  that  it  is  not  based  on  any  experience  of 
the  individual  chick,  and  has  been  conceived  by 
many  biologists  as  due  to  a  kind  of  memory  of  the 
experiences  of  preceding  generations.  This  memory 
can  only  be  conceived  as  corresponding  to  some 
sort  of  physical  traces  in  the  protoplasm  of  those 
cells  which  were  destined  to  become  the  nervous 
system  of  the  chick,  —  traces  established  there  as  the 
result  of  the  formation  of  certain  habits  of  action 
in  the  ancestors.  Now,  assuming  such  traces  to 
lie  at  the  foundation  of  instinct  (and  also  at  the 
foundation  of  other  properties  connected  with  the 


52    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

development  of  the  organism),  we  are  at  once  con- 
fronted with  a  question  of  crucial  importance  to 
biology.  Are  these  traces  derived  from  the  trans- 
mission and  accumulation  of  experiences  (amount- 
ing to  characteristics)  which  have  happened  to  the 
ancestors,  or  are  they  derived  directly  from  the 
germ  plasma  of  the  ancestors  by  its  direct  continuity 
and  without  the  intervention  of  influences  from  the 
body  cells  ?  In  other  words,  are  we  to  believe  that 
acquired  characters  are  transmitted  or  not  ?  There 
are  two  leading  hypotheses  on  this  subject  that  lay 
claim  to  our  attention.  The  one  which  denies  that 
acquired  characters  are  transmitted  is  known  as 
Weismann's  hypothesis.  The  one  which  maintains 
that  acquired  characters  are  transmitted  is  known  as 
the  Lamarckian  theory,  or,  in  its  modern  form,  as  the 
mnemic  or  Hering-Semon  hypothesis.  According  to 
the  hypothesis  of  Weismann  the  racial  or  phyletic 
life  of  all  organisms  is  pictured  as  a  connected  and 
continuous  chain  of  germ  cells.  In  order  that  the 
chain  should  continue  unbroken,  it  is  essential  that 
the  germ  cells  should  be  housed  and  nourished  in 
the  body,  or  soma,  of  a  full-grown  individual  in  each 
generation.  But  this  body,  or  soma,  be  it  noted, 
contributes  nothing  to  the  properties  of  the  germ 
cells.  The  germ  cells  may  vary  spontaneously  from 
generation  to  generation,  but  the  soma  in  which 
they  are  sheltered  is  quite  without  influence  over 
them  in  respect  to  inheritance.  Therefore,  accord- 
ing  to   this   hypothesis,   no   characters   which   are 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  53 

acquired  by  a  parent  can  be  transmitted  to  the 
offspring,  and  neither  the  brawn  of  the  blacksmith 
nor  the  practiced  brain  of  the  thinker  can  benefit 
the  child  by  way  of  inheritance.  This  is  a  con- 
tention which  it  is  probably  difficult  for  most  per- 
sons, unversed  in  questions  of  heredity,  to  accept. 
It  is  a  position  which  seems  at  first  sight  opposed 
to  experience  and  probability.  But  if  an  attempt 
be  made  to  give  an  unimpeachable  example  of  in- 
heritance of  acquired  characters,  it  will  be  found 
singularly  unsatisfactory  and  unconvincing.  The 
effects  of  use  or  disuse  show  no  clear  signs  of  being 
transmitted.  The  same  is  true  of  the  effects  of 
education.  And  if  we  turn  to  the  study  of  mutila- 
tions, we  find  no  encouragement  there.  A  religious 
practice  of  the  Jews  has  given  us  an  example  of  a 
mutilation  of  singular  antiquity.  More  than  a 
hundred  generations  have  been  subject  to  circum- 
cision, and  yet  no  inherited  influence  is  visible  to-day. 
Many  examples  of  alleged  transmission  have,  indeed, 
been  offered,  but  it  seems  as  if  none  of  them  were 
good  enough  to  be  considered  decisive  evidence. 
For  example,  by  exposing  a  certain  variety  of 
salamander  to  the  action  of  cold,  there  is  induced  a 
retardation  in  the  delivery  of  the  salamander  larvae ; 
and  this  peculiarity  is  observed  also  in  these  larvae 
when  they  have  matured,  and  in  their  descendants 
also,  despite  the  fact  that  there  has  been  no  exposure 
to  cold.  But  Weismann  would  say  to  such  a  case 
that  the  temperature  which  affected  the  original 


54    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

salamanders  affected  also  the  germ  plasma ;  and  his 
criticism  would  be  difficult  to  refute.  Indeed,  it  is 
doubtful  if  there  be  a  single  example  of  supposedly- 
somatic  inheritance  which  cannot  be  equally  well 
explained  on  the  ground  of  Weismann's  hypothesis. 
The  great  strength  of  Weismann's  position  is 
illustrated  by  the  well-known  conditions  that  exist 
in  a  hive  of  bees.  The  queen  in  such  a  community 
is  merely  a  mechanism  for  reproduction,  since  she 
is  excluded  from  all  experiences  connected  with  the 
active  struggle  for  existence.  This  part  of  life  falls 
on  the  workers,  who  house,  nourish,  and  protect 
the  queen  and  incidentally  make  just  those  experi- 
ences which  should  fit  them  more  and  more  efficiently 
for  their  life  work.  But  these  workers  are  quite 
sterile,  and  so  have  no  chance  to  transmit  any  experi- 
ence or  habit  they  may  have  acquired.  The  queen 
represents  the  germ  plasma  of  Weismann;  the 
workers  stand  for  the  body  or  somatic  cells.  Any 
improvement  in  the  race  of  bees  must  come  from 
variations  in  the  queen  bees  and  the  drones,  as  it  is 
quite  clear  that  the  experiences  of  the  workers  can- 
not possibly  be  inherited.  It  cannot  be  gainsaid 
that  the  force  of  the  Weismann  hypothesis  lies  in 
its  ingenious  explanation  of  heredity,  —  by  which 
a  bit  of  germ  plasma  is,  as  it  were,  laid  aside  and 
held  in  trust  to  make  the  germ  cells  for  the  new 
generation.  In  an  equally  important  relation,  how- 
ever, the  hypothesis  is  less  satisfactory.  It  fails, 
I  think,  to  bring  the  process  of  individual  develop- 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  55 

ment  or  ontogeny  into  connection  with  definite 
physiological  processes  and  is  compelled  to  resort 
to  a  theory  of  determinants  (or  ''archetectomic 
sprites,"  as  Francis  Darwin  has  aptly  dubbed  them) 
which  is  complicated  and  unconvincing.  Moreover, 
if  one  believes,  as  many  biologists  do,  that  the  somatic 
cells  are  physically  continuous  with  the  germ  cells 
and  are  endowed  with  the  same  kind  of  reproductive 
qualities  (as  seen  in  the  phenomenon  of  regenera- 
tion), the  Weismann  hypothesis  does  not  give  us  an 
entirely  satisfactory  explanation  of  heredity. 

Let  us  therefore  survey  briefly  the  mnemic  hypothe- 
sis, in  order  to  see  what  help  it  can  give  us.  Accord- 
ing to  the  German  naturalist  Semon  (who  has 
elaborately  developed  the  ingenious  theory  designed 
by  Hering  to  account  for  the  hereditary  quaUties  of 
living  organisms),  stimuli  or  irritatives  of  various 
kinds  leave  quite  definite  and  permanent  traces  on 
the  protoplasm  of  the  living  animal  or  plant.  Such 
a  trace,  representing  the  reaction  of  the  living  proto- 
plasm to  the  stimulation,  he  calls  an  engram.  This 
permanent  physical  or  chemical  change  in  the  living 
machine  which  results  from  the  action  of  stimuli 
has  been  called  the  "internal  condition,"  or  "physi- 
ological state,"  by  other  investigators  —  at  least 
there  is  a  rough  correspondence  between  these  terms 
and  Semon's  engrams.  Now  the  essential  pecul- 
iarity of  the  states  expressed  by  all  these  terms  is 
the  regulative  influence  exerted  on  the  behavior  of 
organisms  even  after  the  original  external  agencies 


56     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

or  stimuli  cease  to  operate  —  an  influence  showing 
itself  in  the  growth  of  habit.  A  good  example  of 
this  is  seen  in  the  behavior  of  Convoluta  roscoffensis, 
a  small,  wormhke  animal  living  on  the  coast  of 
Brittany  and  leading  a  life  closely  dependent  on  the 
tides.  With  ebb  tide  the  Convoluta  show  themselves 
at  the  surface,  where  they  form  large  green  patches. 
As  the  flood  tide  covers  them,  they  seek  protection 
by  subsidence  in  the  sand.  The  effect  of  this 
rhythmical  stimulation  shows  itself  in  the  singular 
fact  that  when  kept  in  an  aquarium,  away  from 
all  tidal  action,  they  continue  for  a  short  period  to 
rise  and  sink  in  the  sand  in  time  with  the  ebb  and 
flow  of  the  tide.  Similar  examples  of  habit  or 
mnemic  action  are  seen  in  plants.  In  sleeping 
plants  the  leaves  take  a  distinctly  different  position 
at  night  from  that  which  they  take  by  day;  they 
have,  in  fact,  a  habit  or  memory  based  on  the  alter- 
nation of  night  and  day.  But  if  the  sleeping  plant 
be  placed  in  a  dark  room  after  its  leaves  are  in  the 
sleeping  position,  the  leaves  will  take  their  light 
position  despite  the  fact  that  they  are  screened  from 
the  stimulus  of  light.  Here,  then,  we  have  clear 
illustrations  of  habits  or  memory  traces  which  may 
be  revived  in  the  absence  of  the  stimuli  which 
originally  formed  these  engrams,  or,  if  not  in  the 
complete  absence  of  these  stimuli,  when  they  are 
much  feebler  than  before.  Habit  is,  in  fact,  nothing 
more  than  a  faculty  acquired  by  frequent  repetition 
of  responding  to  a  mere  fraction  of  the  original  and 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  57 

educative  stimuli.  Through  the  bonding  together 
or  association  of  many  engrams  it  becomes  possible 
for  the  higher  animal  to  execute  very  complex  series 
of  actions  —  as,  for  example,  when  a  trained  musi- 
cian renders  an  elaborate  composition  from  memory 
and  without  taking  cognizance  of  individual  keys,  — 
that  is,  with  Httle  intrusion  upon  the  automatism 
estabhshed  by  long  habit. 

There  is  good  evidence  to  show  that  the  effects 
of  external  stimulation  are  not  confined  to  those 
subtle  changes,  still  indefinable  in  terms  of  chemical 
and  physical  processes,  which  are  the  basis  of  the 
engrams  of  habit,  association,  memory,  and  thought. 
The  changes  attributable  to  stimulation  clearly 
extend  to  definite  morphological  changes,  but  we 
cannot  yet  say  whether  the  delicate  traces  of  memory 
are  expressed  in  the  more  refined  kinds  of  morpho- 
logical alterations  of  protoplasm  which  are  possibly 
recognizable  by  known  methods  of  study.  The 
degree  in  which  the  development  of  the  individual 
—  that  is,  the  ontologenetic  development  —  is  con- 
trollable by  the  variation  of  external  stimuli  is  in  a 
high  degree  surprising.  By  altering  the  conditions 
of  cultivation  the  color  of  the  flower  Campanula 
trachelium  can  be  changed  from  blue  to  white  and 
back  again  from  white  to  blue,  and  Klebs  has  suc- 
ceeded in  bringing  about  the  experimental  formation 
of  apetalous  flowers  with  one  instead  of  two  rows 
of  stamens. 

Now  the  mnemic  theory  of  heredity  assumes  that 


58    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

there  is  a  close  parallelism  between  the  processes 
concerned  in  the  development  of  cell  memory  in  its 
widest  sense  and  the  processes  concerned  in  the  de- 
velopment of  the  impregnated  egg  cell.  This  view, 
first  clearly  stated  by  Hering  in  his  famous  Vienna 
address  in  1870,  has  been  elaborated  by  Semon,  and 
very  recently  Mr.  Francis  Darwin  has  given  it  in- 
genious if  not  convincing  support.  The  growth  of 
the  individual  from  the  germ  cell  is  through  a  series 
of  stages  of  cell  division,  the  process  of  each  stage 
acting  as  stimuli  to  a  further  unfolding,  "each  unit 
following  its  predecessor  like  the  movements  linked 
together  in  an  habitual  action  performed  by  an  ani- 
mal." There  is,  indeed,  much  to  be  said  in  favor 
of  the  idea  that  the  rhythm  or  progression  of  in- 
dividual development  or  ontogeny  is  essentially  a 
habit.  This  rhythm  or  progression  certainly  has 
the  characteristic  feature  of  habit,  the  automatic 
property  visible  in  the  execution  of  a  series  of 
actions  in  response  to  a  mere  fraction  of  the  series  of 
stimuli  on  which  these  actions — the  successive  stages 
of  ontogeny  —  originally  depended.  But  the  pro- 
gressions of  ontogeny  and  habit  resemble  each 
other  not  merely  in  this  fundamental  quality  of 
variabiUty.  ''A  habit,"  says  Mr.  Darwin,  ''is  not 
irrevocably  fixed,  but  may  be  altered  in  various  ways. 
Parts  of  it  may  be  forgotten  or  new  links  may  be 
added  to  it.  In  ontogeny  the  fixity  is  especially 
observable  in  the  earlier,  the  variability  in  the  later, 
stages."    This  quality  of  variabihty  is  extremely 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  59 

important,  for  on  it  must  depend  the  occmreDces  of 
evolution.  For,  obviously  enough,  if  the  rhythm 
of  ontogeny  were  firmly  fixed,  a  species  could  never 
originate  new  variations,  but  would  remain  rigid 
and  invariable. 

There  are  two  different  ways  in  which  we  may 
think  of  these  variations  as  taking  place.  Accord- 
ing to  Weismann,  the  rhythm  of  ontogeny  can  be 
altered  only  by  a  basic  change  in  the  very  first  stage 
of  growth  —  in  the  germ  cell  itself.  This  is,  indeed, 
the  view  generally  held  by  students  of  biology.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  is  maintained  by  the  upholders  of 
the  Hering-Semon  hypothesis  that  the  rhythm  of 
ontogeny  can  be  changed  by  habit,  that  is,  by  linking 
new  engrams  to  old  ones.  Assuming  that  this  can 
happen  in  the  neural  structures  of  an  individual,  and 
in  lesser  degree  in  other  kinds  of  cells,  how  can  the 
engrams  in  question  influence  the  germ  cells  ?  This 
is,  indeed,  the  crux  of  the  whole  matter.  The 
mnemic  theory  holds  that  the  germ  cells  share  with 
the  nerve  cells  the  possession  of  engrams  —  engrams 
linked  by  association  so  that  they  come  into  play  in 
definite  succession  in  an  automatic  way,  without  the 
repetition  of  the  original  stimuli.  It  assumes  also 
that  these  organized  series  of  engrams  in  the  germ 
cells  are  due  in  part  at  least  to  an  engram  action  of 
the  growing  individual  upon  its  own  germ  cells. 
Clearly  this  is  only  possible  if  there  is  some  kind  of 
connection  between  the  nervous  system  and  other 
cells  and  the  germ  plasma,   a  neural  telegraphy, 


60     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

perhaps  —  thus  enabling  the  characters  newly  ac- 
quired in  ontogeny  to  be  transmitted  and  added  in 
the  form  of  engrams  to  the  germ  cells.  In  other 
words,  the  mnemic  theory  of  development  must 
stand  or  fall  with  the  proof  or  disproof  of  somatic 
inheritance,  or  the  inheritance  of  acquired  characters. 

The  greatest  difficulty  standing  in  the  way  of  the 
acceptance  of  the  Hering-Semon  theory  is  in  finding 
evidence  that  the  cells  of  the  developing  body  or 
soma  are  telegraphically  connected  with  the  germ 
cells.  We  have  already  seen  that  there  is  as  yet  no 
unimpeachable  evidence  that  acquired  characters 
are  inherited,  and  it  must  be  admitted  at  the  pres- 
ent time,  that  we  have  no  proof  of  the  kind  of  somatic 
germ-cell  telegraphy  that  is  demanded  bj'-  the  mnemic 
theory  of  inheritance.  In  plants  there  are  proto- 
plasmic threads  which  connect  all  parts  of  the  organ- 
ism; in  animals  the  nerve  fibers  radiate  from  the 
nervous  system  to  nearly  every  kind  of  cell.  There 
is,  I  think,  a  sufiicient  anatomical  basis  for  the 
Hering  supposition  that  ''all  parts  of  the  body  are 
so  connected  that  what  happens  in  one  echoes 
through  the  rest,  so  that  from  the  disturbance  occur- 
ring in  any  part  some  notification,  faint  though  it 
may  be,  is  conveyed  to  the  most  distant  parts  of  the 
body." 

Weismann  looks  with  disfavor  on  the  idea  that 
germinal  engrams  can  be  formed  by  messages  sent 
through  nervous  paths.  He  thinks  the  nervous 
impulses  all  have  the  same  quality  except  in  respect 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  61 

to  intensity,  and  that  it  is  impossible  for  somatic 
changes  to  be  transmitted  telegraphically  to  the 
germ  cells,  to  be  developed  later  in  the  course  of 
ontogeny.  Such  a  process  he  cleverly  compares  to 
a  telegram  sent  in  German  and  arriving  in  Chinese. 
If  it  be  true  that  all  nervous  impulses  are  identical 
in  quality,  this  would  seem  a  serious  objection  to  the 
mnemic  theory.  But  this  is  by  no  means  proven. 
It  is  a  fact  that  a  motor  nerve,  like  the  spinal  acces- 
sory, can  be  cross-grafted  so  that  the  impulses  going 
through  it  will  act  in  the  territory  of  the  facial  nerve. 
When  we  take  the  case  of  the  nerves  of  special  sense, 
however,  we  find  such  great  differences  in  the  quali- 
ties of  the  sensations  that  it  is  simpler  to  admit  the 
existence  of  differences  in  impulse  quality  than  to 
find  any  other  way  out  of  the  difficulty. 

It  would  be  useless  here  to  enter  further  on  the 
comparison  of  the  Weismann  and  Hering-Semon 
theories  of  inheritance.  Both  have  their  strong 
points  and  both  have  their  weaknesses.  Weismann's 
theory  is  strong  where  it  attempts  to  explain  the 
continuity  and  fixity  of  racial  or  phyletic  quaUties, 
weak  w*here  it  attempts  to  explain  the  rhythm  of 
ontogenetic  or  individual  development.  The  mnemic 
hypothesis  is  at  its  best  just  where  the  Weismann 
theory  is  weakest,  that  is,  in  furnishing  a  consistent 
explanation  of  the  rhythm  and  progress  of  individual 
development.  Which  view  will  triumph  in  the 
end,  it  is  impossible  to  predict.  It  is  not  unrea- 
sonable to  beheve  that  the  recognition  of  the  weak 


62     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

features  of  these  theories  will  lead  to  their  being 
subjected  to  tests  more  carefully  planned  than  any 
heretofore  used,  and  that  these  tests  will  definitely 
settle  one  moot  point  after  another.  I  feel  that  the 
evolution  of  the  human  brain  and  mind  is  much  easier 
to  explain  on  the  mnemic  than  on  any  other,  and 
that  this  hypothesis  in  some  form  is  destined  to  be 
ultimately  accepted.  The  triumph  of  this  theory 
over  that  of  Weismann  would  give  an  additional 
incentive  to  human  individuals  to  acquire  improved 
mental  and  physical  characters  and  to  avoid  the 
acquisition  of  objectionable  ones,  since  it  would  be 
felt  that  the  offspring  is  certain  to  be  in  at  least  a 
slight  degree  influenced  by  these  acquisitions. 

The  part  played  by  natural  selection  in  bringing 
about  and  maintaining  new  species  or  new  qualities 
has  been  the  subject  of  even  more  discussion  than  the 
rival  theories  of  heredity  which  have  just  been  dis- 
cussed, for  Charles  Darwin's  claims  for  the  impor- 
tance of  this  factor  in  evolution  have  now  been  before 
men  for  half  a  century,  while  the  theories  of  Weis- 
mann and  Hering-Semon  are  relatively  youthful. 
There  has  in  recent  years  been  a  tendency  to  mini- 
mize the  importance  of  natural  selection.  That 
the  mnemic  conception  of  heredity  operates  to  re- 
habilitate this  factor  in  evolution  is,  it  seems  to  me, 
evident  enough.  And  never  has  the  bearing  of  the 
mnemic  theory  on  natural  selection  been  stated 
more  fairly  or  more  eloquently  than  by  Francis 
Darwin  in  closing  his  admirable  address  before  the 


GROWTH  AND  REPRODUCTION  63 

British  Association.  He  says:  "The  great  engine 
of  natural  selection  is  taunted  nowadays,  as  it  was 
fifty  years  ago,  with  being  merely  a  negative  power. 
I  venture  to  think  that  the  mnemic  hypothesis  of 
evolution  makes  the  positive  value  of  natural  selec- 
tion more  obvious.  If  evolution  is  a  process  of  drill- 
ing organisms  into  habits,  the  elimination  of  those 
that  cannot  learn  is  an  integral  part  of  the  process, 
and  is  no  less  real  because  it  is  carried  out  by  a  self- 
acting  system.  It  is  surely  a  positive  gain  to  the 
harmony  of  the  universe  that  the  discordant  strings 
should  break.  But  natural  selection  does  more 
than  this ;  and  just  as  a  trainer  insists  on  his  perform- 
ing dogs  accommodating  themselves  to  conditions 
of  increasing  complexity,  so  does  natural  selection 
pass  on  its  pupils  from  one  set  of  conditions  to  other 
and  more  elaborate  tests,  insisting  that  they  shall 
endlessly  repeat  what  they  have  learned  and  forcing 
them  to  learn  something  new.  Natural  selection 
attains  in  a  blind  way  the  ends  gained  by  a  human 
breeder ;  and  by  an  extension  of  the  same  metaphor 
it  may  be  said  to  have  the  power  of  a  trainer  —  of 
an  automatic  master  with  endless  patience  and  all 
time  at  his  disposal." 


CHAPTER  III 

CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL 

The  great  French  physiologist  Claude  Bernard, 
discussing  the  problems  of  life  in  his  lucid  and  large 
way,  concluded  that  the  irreducible  residuum  is  the 
power  of  development  of  the  egg,  to  which  the  laws 
of  physics  and  chemistry  cannot  be  made  to  apply. 
It  has  just  been  pointed  out  that  modern  biological 
research  has  in  the  past  quarter  century  gone  far 
to  show  that  the  complicated  processes  of  develop- 
ment are  rooted  in  mechanisms  that  obey  physical 
and  chemical  laws.  The  situation  has  in  conse- 
quence changed  so  greatly  since  the  days  of  Bernard 
that  he  would  probably  be  among  the  first  to  admit 
that  significant  breaches  have  been  made  in  "the 
past  rampart  of  vitalism, "  as  he  called  the  evolutional 
forces  of  the  egg  and  the  cell.  But  there  are  many 
biologists  who  have  looked  in  another  direction  for 
the  irreducible  residuum  —  to  the  psychical  reaction, 
the  phenomenon  of  consciousness.  And  it  must  be 
owned  that  in  this  direction  but  little  advance  has 
been  made  against  what  many  would  call  the  last 
rampart  of  vitalism,  or  indeed  of  spiritualism.  It 
must  be  noted,  too,  that  at  this  point  physiologists 
have  shown  a  pusillanimous  spirit,  for  have  they  not 

64 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  65 

generally  admitted,  either  tacitly  or  openly,  that  the 
psychical  side  of  life  is  beyond  the  possible  applica- 
tion of  the  methods  of  physics  and  chemistry  ?  — 
a  conclusion  seemingly  equivalent  to  the  admission 
that  there  exists  a  non-material  reality.  Physiolo- 
gists have  shunned  this  supremely  diflScult  problem, 
leaving  it  too  largely  in  the  care  of  metaphysicians 
and  narrowly  specialized  psychologists.  The  true 
note  was  struck  on  this  subject  when  the  compara- 
tive anatomist  Minot  said  that  "Consciousness 
ought  to  be  regarded  as  a  biological  phenomenon 
which  the  biologist  ought  to  investigate  in  order  to 
increase  the  number  of  verifiable  data  concerning 
it."  Something  of  value  would  doubtless  be  won  by 
carrying  the  comparative  method  into  the  psycho- 
logical study  of  all  types  of  life,  but  an  even  more 
promising  way  would  seem  to  lie  in  neuropathology, 
which  gives  us  hope  that  consciousness  may  be 
definitely  connected  with  changes  in  the  structure 
and  properties  of  the  nerve  elements.  But  it  is 
unlikely  that  narrow  specialism  will  force  the  ad- 
vances in  this  most  subtle  field  of  research.  Rather 
must  we  look  to  the  united  labors  of  the  chemist, 
the  physicist,  the  pathologist,  the  psychologist,  and 
the  physiologist  to  penetrate  this  land  of  mystery 
in  the  hope  of  showing  it  to  belong  in  the  same 
category  with  the  better-known  territories  of  science. 
Let  us  first  state  the  problem  so  as  to  exhibit  its 
main  difficulties.  A  physical  influence  of  some  kind 
(as  a  touch  on  the  skin),  easily  within  reach  of  the 


66     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

external  perception  of  more  than  one  person,  is 
carried  along  a  bundle  of  nerve  fibers.  Now  at  some 
period  in  this  passage  there  occurs  a  fact  ordinarily- 
assumed  to  be  of  a  wholly  different  kind,  namely, 
a  mental  fact  within  reach  of  the  internal  perception 
of  only  one  person  —  the  sensation  of  having  been 
touched.  Nature  gives  us  many  examples  of  strange 
transmutations  of  energy,  as  of  heat  or  electricity 
into  light,  or,  still  more  striking,  of  the  change  from 
radium  into  helium.  These  are  clear  examples  of  the 
disparateness  of  the  first  and  second  stages  of  a 
process,  but  in  none  of  these  cases  is  the  second  stage 
of  the  process  of  a  radically  different  order  from  the 
first.  Helium,  though  different  from  radium,  is 
like  it  an  elementary  state  of  matter.  The  phenome- 
non of  heat  and  light  shade  insensibly  into  each  other, 
and  the  difference  between  these  forms  of  energy  is 
apparently  mainly  one  of  wave  lengths.  But  here, 
in  the  case  before  us,  is  an  example  of  an  apparently 
different  order  between  the  nerve  process  of  the  first 
stage  and  that  state  of  consciousness  which  is  the 
second  stage.  Where  shall  we  find  an  example  of  an 
equally  great  difference  in  quality  between  the  first 
and  second  stages  of  a  process?  Here,  then,  is  a 
difficulty  of  a  serious  nature;  for  since  we  can  explain 
the  unknown  only  in  terms  of  the  known,  we  seem 
to  be  shut  out  from  any  method  of  approach,  when 
we  venture  to  deal  with  consciousness. 

A  difficulty  which  has  stood  distinctly  in  the  way 
of  clear  thought  regarding  the  problem  of  conscious- 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  67 

ness  has  its  origin  in  the  philosophy  of  Ren6  Des- 
cartes. The  deep  insight  of  Descartes  convinced 
him  that  matter  was  essentially  quantitative  or 
spatial,  capable  of  infinite  subdivision  and  con- 
trolled by  mechanical  laws.  On  the  other  hand, 
mind  or  spiritual  substance  was  teleological,  indi- 
visible, and  qualitative.  Matter  and  mind,  therefore, 
are  realities  utterly  independent  of  each  other. 
Matter  is  nothing  but  quantitative;  mind,  nothing 
but  qualitative.  This  acceptance  of  dualism  made 
it  necessary  for  people  to  abandon  any  conception 
of  a  causal  relation  between  these  divided  realms  of 
the  universe  —  matter  and  mind.  But  Descartes 
and  his  followers  teach  that  bodily  conditions,  as, 
for  example,  the  retinal  changes  under  the  action  of 
light,  affect  the  mind  with  perception.  And  just 
here  lies  the  hopeless  inconsistency  of  the  Cartesian 
doctrine;  for  if  changes  in  the  matter  of  the  retina 
really  act  on  mind,  how  is  this  effect  brought  about 
if  matter  and  mind  are  distinct?  True  causality 
implies  a  passage  of  energy  from  the  causal  agent  to 
the  object  in  which  the  effect  arises.  But  how  can 
energy  be  transferred  from  somewhere  (as  the  retina) 
to  nowhere  (the  mind)  ?  We  are  forced  to  the  view 
that  matter  and  mind  either  do  not  affect  each 
other  —  in  which  case  the  retinal  change  could  not 
affect  the  mind,  and  God,  being  spiritual,  could  not 
create  material  objects  —  or  there  are  not,  in  fact, 
two  entirely  independent  sets  of  reality.  There  are 
many  reasons  why  the  mind  of  the  biologist  tends  to 


68    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

accept  the  latter  view.  If,  however,  we  take  the 
position  that  there  are  not,  in  fact,  two  entirely  inde- 
pendent states  of  reaUty,  we  are  at  once  confronted 
with  the  necessity  of  deciding  that  the  basis  of  mind 
is  either  wholly  material  or  wholly  spiritual.  But 
there  are  obvious  difficulties  connected  with  either 
of  these  assumptions.  These  difficulties  have  led 
to  the  promulgation  of  a  doctrine  which  is  known  as 
psychophysical  parallelism,  which  has  its  roots  in 
the  dualism  of  Descartes,  Spinoza,  and  Leibnitz. 
According  to  this  doctrine,  each  physical  change  in 
the  nervous  system  is  accompanied  on  the  mental 
side  by  a  concomitant  change  in  the  psychical  system, 
to  which  we  give  the  name  consciousness.  The 
converse  is  also  true;  that  is,  every  mental  change 
is  accompanied  by  alterations  in  the  physical  state. 
The  relation  between  the  mental  state  and  the  bodily 
state  is  thus  conceived  as  one  of  paralleUsm,  coin- 
cidence, correspondence,  or  concomitance.  The  at- 
tractiveness of  this  theory  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
does  not  force  us  to  assume  the  existence  of  any 
causal  interaction  at  all  between  mind  and  body. 
The  facts  of  consciousness  are  accounted  for  equally 
well  by  maintaining  that  such  causal  relations  as 
exist  lie  within  the  physical  series  of  events  or  within 
the  psychical  series.  W.  K.  Clifford  stated  this 
view  with  the  help  of  the  following  well-known 
illustration:  when  we  say  "a  feeling  of  chill  made 
a  man  run,"  what  we  mean  is  —  'Hhe  nervous 
disturbance  which  coexisted  with  that  feeUng  of  chill 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  69 

made  him  run,"  if  we  want  to  talk  about  the  material 
facts;  or,  'Hhe  feeling  of  chill  produced  the  form  of 
subconsciousness  which  coexists  with  the  motion  of 
legs,"  if  we  want  to  talk  about  the  mental  facts. 

This  seems  a  fair  statement  of  the  parallelism 
theory  which  has  had  so  wide  an  acceptance.  To  me 
it  appears  as  an  entirely  unsatisfactory,  character- 
less hypothesis  which  contents  itself  to  evade  the 
real  issue  by  word  juggling.  It  seems  to  me  an 
essentially  unproductive  theory,  just  because  it 
seeks  to  evade  the  issue.  The  issue  is  an  old  one : 
Does  brain  activity  account  for  consciousness  and 
the  powers  that  depend  upon  consciousness?  I 
think  it  not  difficult  to  show  why  the  simplicity  of 
this  issue  has  been  overcast  and  befogged  by  meta- 
physical considerations  which  frequently  reach  the 
point  of  absurdity.  Some  illustrations  from  well- 
known  physiological  processes  will  help  us  in  this 
endeavor. 

If  we  stimulate  the  nerve  called  the  chorda 
tympani,  there  is  a  quick  and  striking  response.  The 
saliva  begins  to  flow  abundantly.  Accompanying 
this  salivary  flow  is  a  greatly  increased  flow  of  blood 
through  the  salivary  gland.  What  is  the  relation  of 
the  saliva  secreted  to  the  salivary  gland  itself? 
The  relation  is  a  comparatively  simple  one.  Under 
the  influence  of  the  nerve  stimulus  the  various  con- 
stituents of  the  saliva  are  made  from  substances 
already  present  in  the  gland  or  from  the  blood  which 
flows  through  it.    Nobody  doubts  that  the  forma- 


70    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

tion  of  saliva  is  a  direct  and  unimpeachable  function 
of  the  cells  of  the  salivary  gland.  No  one  has  thought 
it  worth  while  to  propose  that  the  saliva  is  the  cause 
of  the  glandular  activity;  nobody  has  deemed  it 
necessary  to  suggest  a  parallelism  between  glandular 
action  and  salivary  flow,  to  enable  philosophers  to 
hedge  as  to  the  relationship  between  the  saliva  and 
the  glandular  action.  If  we  stop  to  consider  the 
nature  of  nervous  stimulation  and  the  nature  of 
saliva,  we  see  that  they  are  very  different  things  ; 
they  have  the  quality  of  "disparateness,"  as  the 
metaphysicians  like  to  say.  But  it  makes  nobody 
uncomfortable  to  believe  that  saliva  is  a  result  of 
the  activity  of  salivary  cells,  and  nobody  takes  the 
trouble  to  question  the  prevailing  view  on  this 
subject. 

If  we  apply  a  drop  of  acid  to  the  skin  of  a  decapi- 
tated frog,  the  animal  will  be  seen  to  draw  up  his 
leg  on  the  same  side  and  to  energetically  strive  to 
rid  his  skin  of  the  acid.  The  act  looks  like  a  volun- 
tary act,  but  obviously  it  is  not,  because  the  animal 
is  headless.  The  apparently  protective  act  is  reflex 
in  its  nature.  That  is,  a  sensory  stimulus  passes 
from  the  skin  along  a  sensory  nerve  into  the  spinal 
cord  (by  the  posterior  nerve  roots)  and  by  more  or 
less  devious  paths,  enters  the  ganglion  cells  of  the 
anterior  horns  of  the  spinal  cord.  Here  apparently 
the  energy  represented  by  the  sensory  stimulus 
suffices  to  unlock  another  kind  of  energy  stored  in  the 
ganglion  cells,  and  what  is  called  a  motor  stimulus 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  71 

is  transmitted  to  the  muscles,  resulting  in  their 
contraction  and  the  movement  of  the  limb.  The 
sensory  stimulus  carried  by  the  sensory  nerve  is 
certainly  quite  unlike  the  motor  stimulus  culminat- 
ing in  muscle  contraction.  The  ''disparateness" 
of  the  two  occurrences,  sensation  and  contraction, 
is  sufficiently  marked.  The  muscle  contraction,  fa- 
mihar  as  it  is,  belongs  among  the  obscure  phenomena 
of  physiology ;  no  one  knows  the  real  nature  of  the 
changes  in  the  muscle  fiber  that  result  in  shortening. 
Nevertheless,  it  has  occurred  to  nobody  to  set  up  a 
doctrine  of  parallelism  like  that  which  is  so  warmly 
advocated  in  the  case  of  consciousness.  It  is  frankly 
admitted  by  all  that  contraction  of  the  muscle  is  a 
function  of  the  muscle  and  that  the  motor  impulse 
awakens  chemical  alterations  in  the  muscle  fiber 
which  cause  the  shortening  we  call  contraction. 
This  straightforward  rational  view  is  disturbing  to 
nobody.  Consequently  we  do  not  find  eminent  men 
maintaining  that  contraction  and  nervous  impulse 
are  concomitant  phenomena  or  that  contraction  pre- 
cedes nervous  impulses. 

It  may  be  objected  that  it  is  not  fair  to  Hken  the 
function  of  muscle  contraction  to  the  obviously 
more  subtle  one  of  consciousness,  and  that  in  doing 
so  we  are  comparing  things  wholly  unlike.  Yet  there 
is  a  feature  of  muscular  contraction  which  brings  it 
into  the  closest  relation  with  consciousness.  It  is 
through  the  agency  of  the  muscle  sense  that  the 
nervous  system  is  apprised  of  the  position  of  the  body 


72     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

and  thus  becomes  able  to  adapt  itself  to  the  outer 
world.  In  the  case  of  the  headless  frog  the  organism, 
though  devoid  of  the  higher  forms  of  consciousness, 
is  still  in  a  measure  able  to  adapt  itself  to  its  sur- 
roundings in  an  apparently  purposive  way.  This 
it  does  through  the  agency  of  muscular  contractions 
coordinated  by  impulses  arising  from  the  spinal 
cord.  Doubtless  it  is  true  that  in  the  headless  frog 
functional  pathways  exist  which  have  been  educated 
in  the  cord  by  the  action  of  the  brain,  and  that 
these  pathways  are  utilized  in  the  absence  of  the 
brain.  And  it  would  be  unfair  to  deny  that  the 
muscular  contractions  give  to  the  headless  frog  a 
property  of  adaptation  to  external  conditions  which 
if  not  strictly  constituting  consciousness,  neverthe- 
less shades  gradually  into  states  which  must  be 
admitted  as  states  of  consciousness. 

When  we  come  to  consider  the  relation  of  nervous 
activity  to  consciousness,  the  rational  view  is  aban- 
doned. The  rational  view  as  to  the  nature  of  con- 
sciousness is  that  sensory  impulses,  carried  into 
an  extremely  elaborate  cerebral  mechanism,  liberate 
there,  through  chemical  changes  in  the  ganglion 
cells,  a  kind  of  energy  which  manifests  itself  by  giving 
to  the  individual  the  property  of  awareness  of  self. 
It  is  likely  that  this  quaUty  of  awareness  of  self 
(which  makes  intelligent  action  and  thought  possible 
by  permitting  the  distinction  between  self  and  not- 
self)  depends  on  the  simultaneous,  coordinated 
discharge  of  energy  from  an  enormous  number  of 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  73 

nerve  cells  mainly  in  the  cerebral  cortex.  Indeed, 
I  am  disposed  to  regard  the  mechanism  which  sub- 
serves consciousness  as  the  most  elaborate  of  which 
we  have  any  knowledge  or  can  form  any  conception. 
Each  nerve  cell  involved  is  a  center  of  force  connected 
by  physical  pathways  with  numberless  other  engines 
of  similar  type.  The  number  and  variety  of  these 
engines  and  the  extent  of  their  connections  with 
each  other  is  so  large  as  to  make  possible  a  machine 
of  amazing  intricacy  and  almost  unlimited  dynamic 
possibilities.  To  define  the  limits  of  the  mechanism 
on  which  consciousness  depends  is,  of  course,  impos- 
sible. One  may  suspect  that  the  energy  of  the 
dynamic  discharge  from  the  cellular  elements  is  a 
factor  in  determining  the  grade  of  consciousness. 
For  we  have  to  recognize  every  gradation  between 
the  psychical  states  in  which  a  powerful  intelligence 
is  most  keenly  aware  of  certain  events  transpiring 
within  the  cranium,  and  that  state  of  dulled  con- 
sciousness in  which  it  is  impossible  to  feel  certain 
that  an  individual  is  aware  of  the  distinction  between 
what  is  self  and  not-self.  That  these  variations  in  the 
distinctness  of  consciousness  depend  on  the  varying 
individuality  and  complexity  of  the  cerebral  elements 
that  are  temporarily  associated  together  and  on  the 
variation  in  the  intensity  of  the  discharge  from  these 
elements,  seems  to  me  the  most  reasonable  explana- 
tion of  these  fluctuations  in  the  same  person. 

And  just  here  we  may  pause  a  moment  to  ask 
what  we  really  mean  by  the  word  "  consciousness." 


74  BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

Different  writers  do  not  always  use  the  term  in  the 
same  sense,  and  this  divergence  brings  confusion. 
I  am  disposed  to  Umit  the  term  to  connote  aware- 
ness of  self,  if  any  limit  whatever  is  placed  upon  it. 
The  difficulty  with  any  definition  of  consciousness 
is  that  it  involves  drawing  sharp  lines  which  do  not 
exist  in  nature.  It  is  clear  that  there  is  a  great 
difference  as  regards  awareness  of  self  between  a 
man  while  eating  his  dinner  with  gusto  and  the  same 
man  deeply  absorbed  in  reverie.  In  the  latter  case, 
he  may  be  only  vaguely  aware  of  his  personality 
—  he  is  verging  on  the  limits  of  consciousness  accord- 
ing to  the  arbitrary  restriction  just  suggested.  A 
newly  born  child  on  opening  its  eyes  for  the  first 
time  has  sensations,  but  it  is  very  questionable  if  it 
has  a  sufficiently  definite  feeling  of  personality  to  be 
called  awareness  of  self.  Such  a  child,  according  to 
our  definition,  would  not  be  conscious.  Yet  in  the 
conventional  sense  it  would  not  be  unconscious  as 
is  a  child  in  coma.  But  is  it  not  legitimate  and 
useful  to  make  a  fairly  sharp  distinction  between 
this  semiconsciousness  of  a  child  unaware  of  its 
personality  as  distinguished  from  other  person- 
alities and  the  mental  state  of  full  consciousness 
which  is  enjoyed  by  an  adult  engaged  in  physical 
or  mental  rivalry  with  another  organized  being? 

If  we  object  to  limiting  the  term  "consciousness" 
in  some  such  arbitrary  way  to  its  higher  expression, 
it  is  easy  to  see  where  we  must  land.  For  if  the 
newly  born  child  has  consciousness,  —  that  is,   full 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND   THE  WILL  75 

consciousness,  —  it  is  fair  to  say  that  other  newly- 
born  animals  have  consciousness  of  this  kind  — 
that  is  to  say,  we  must  admit  kittens,  puppies, 
tadpoles,  and  the  larvse  of  insects  to  psychic  associa- 
tion with  man.  Indeed,  we  cannot  stop  here.  Not 
only  do  the  lowliest  animals,  such  as  protozoa,  react 
to  stimuli,  but  plants  and  segments  of  plants  do  the 
same,  and  we  shall  not  be  able  to  deny  consciousness 
to  them.  But  even  here  we  cannot  logically  stop,  for 
we  shall  find  ourselves  recognizing  as  a  kind  of  con- 
sciousness, or  possible  consciousness,  the  reactivity 
of  lifeless  organic  compounds,  and  in  succession, 
their  inorganic  constituents,  the  atoms  themselves, 
and  even  the  labile  electrons  of  which  these  atoms 
appear  to  be  composed.  This  is  perhaps  the  sound 
course  from  the  standpoint  of  philosophy,  but  it 
presents  glaring  practical  difficulties.  If,  then,  we 
limit  the  term  "consciousness"  to  mean  some  higher 
expression  of  this  biological  function  in  the  interest 
of  rational  discussion,  why  not  draw  the  barrier  at 
emergence  of  so  prime  a  quality  as  the  awareness 
of  self?  If  we  cannot  feel  sure  that  it  is  possible 
safely  to  weigh  this  quality  of  awareness  in  different 
animals  or  in  some  human  mental  states,  we  may  at 
least  guess  it  with  sufficient  accuracy  to  permit  a 
rough  classification.  And  this  we  may  do  without 
growing  blind  to  the  fact  that  from  man's  conscious- 
ness of  his  own  personality  to  the  reactivity  of  the 
humblest  masses  of  protoplasm,  there  appears  to  be 
every  gradation  in   the  biological  reactivity   that 


76     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

brightly  or  dimly  mirrors  the  outer  world  on  the 
reactive  being  itself. 

Is  it  not  reasonable  to  make  the  tentative  hypoth- 
esis that  consciousness,  the  basis  of  mind,  is  one 
of  the  biological  functions  dependent  upon  special 
and  elaborate  conditions  of  cerebral  organization? 
This  function  is  one  that  has  been  gradually  acquired 
in  the  course  of  evolution  as  the  brain  has  devel- 
oped. Clearly  it  is  the  function  which  has  had  most 
to  do  in  determining  the  course  of  organic  evolution. 
It  makes  possible  what  living  organ  "sms  would  other- 
wise be  unable  to  do;  namely,  to  think  or  represent 
or  symbolize.  This  power  of  thought  not  merely 
confers  on  man  the  ability  to  consider  the  impres- 
sions and  stimuli  of  the  moment,  but  also  gives  him 
the  free  use  of  remote  experiences  in  the  form  of 
memory  and  in  the  form  of  constructive  imagina- 
tion. A  human  being  thus  becomes  able  to  shape 
his  course  of  action  with  the  help  of  those  physical 
records  in  the  brain  which  underlie  memory  and 
make  possible  the  forecasts  of  constructive  imagina- 
tion. It  is  by  virtue  of  these  relatively  newly 
acquired  functions  or  dynamic  forces  that  man  has 
distanced  all  other  animals  and  the  thinking  man  has 
outstripped  the  less  thinking  man. 

Any  hypothesis  which  regards  consciousness  and 
mind  as  a  function  of  the  brain  can  be  criticized  as 
begging  the  question,  in  the  sense  that  it  starts  from 
a  premise  which  is  in  dispute  among  metaphysicians. 
Such  an  hypothesis  assumes  the  existence  of  matter 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  77 

independent  of  mind,  for  it  assumes  that  brain  cells 
exist  independently  of  consciousness.  For  this  atti- 
tude of  naive  realism  there  is  the  sanction  of  common- 
sense  philosophy.  If  we  refuse  to  take  the  commoner 
view  of  believing  to  be  true  what  appears  to  be 
true,  until  we  learn  something  which  makes  it  appear 
untrue,  we  can  make  no  progress  in  an  attempt  to 
gain  some  understanding  of  the  fundamental  prob- 
lems of  life. 

The  doctrine  that  consciousness  is  a  function  of 
complex  associated  nervous  structures  in  exactly  the 
same  sense  that  the  motion  of  a  limb  is  a  function 
of  complex  associated  neuromuscular  structures  is 
naturally  offensive  to  many  persons.  If  mind  is  a 
function  of  what  we  call  matter,  it  is  evident  that 
there  is  no  necessity  for  turning  to  the  supernatural 
to  explain  human  feehng  and  emotions,  however 
complex  or  noble.  This  belief  is,  of  course,  dis- 
tasteful to  the  religiously  trained  mind,  which  has 
learned  to  look  on  the  psychical  life  or  soul  as  a  direct 
expression  of  the  existence  of  God,  in  a  sense  quite 
different  from  such  expression  of  God  as  may  be 
attributed  to  organic  or  inorganic  nature  in  general. 
This  hostility  to  a  materialistic  point  of  view  has 
been  a  powerful  incentive  and  influence  in  the  fash- 
ioning of  the  various  philosophical  teachings  which 
seek  in  some  way  to  attribute  mind  wholly  to  divine 
nonmaterial  agencies,  or  to  admit  such  agencies  to 
a  dominant  or  indeterminate  partnership  in  the 
phenomena  of  the  soul.     Other  persons  have  been 


78    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

influenced  by  a  nearly  related  objection;  namely, 
the  denial  of  the  freedom  of  the  will,  which  is  necessi- 
tated by  the  materialistic  doctrine  of  the  origin  of 
consciousness.  Huxley  stated  this  doctrine  concisely 
when  he  said :  "The  feeling  we  call  volition  is  not  the 
cause  of  a  voluntary  act,  but  the  symbol  of  that 
state  of  the  brain  which  is  the  inamediate  cause  of 
that  act."  It  is  true  that  physiologists  have  no  real 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  chemical  and  physical 
processes  that  subserve  the  will,  but  this  ignorance 
should  cause  us  no  surprise  when  we  consider  the 
subtlety  and  complexity  of  the  cerebral  processes 
and  the  short  time  that  has  elapsed  since  it  has  been 
possible  to  apply  even  crude  scientific  methods  in 
the  cause  of  cerebral  physiology.  At  present,  how- 
ever, the  questions  in  dispute  among  psychologists 
do  not  relate  to  the  physical  and  chemical  occurrences 
in  the  cortex.  There  are  few  who  do  not  admit  that 
such  occurrences  are  in  some  way  concerned  with 
consciousness,  will,  feeling,  and  thought.  It  is  the 
relation  of  the  brain  processes  to  these  various 
psychical  phases  that  is  in  dispute.  According  to 
some,  the  physical  processes  and  the  psychical  phases 
are  simultaneous ;  according  to  others,  the  psychical 
phases  may  antecede  the  physical  processes.  I  do 
not  contend  that  this  question  is  one  which  can  be 
solved  finally  at  the  present  time,  for  we  have  always 
to  reckon  with  the  possibility  that  science  will  bring 
forward  fresh  facts  which  will  make  it  necessary  to 
view  existing  ones  in  a  new  light.     But  I  maintain 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  79 

that  the  rational,  common-sense,  pragmatic  view  is 
that  the  brain  process  precedes  the  psychical  phase 
—  if  only  by  an  infinitely  small  period  —  and  is  the 
cause  of  it.  I  confess  also  that  I  do  not  understand 
how  any  person  who  has  studied  the  facts  relating 
to  education,  sleep,  general  anaesthesia,  alcoholism, 
general  paresis,  and  cortical  stimulation  can  take  a 
different  view,  unless  he  is  influenced  by  considera- 
tions, not  scientific,  but  religious  or  metaphysical 
and  wholly  outside  the  limits  of  well-attested  human 
experience. 

If  we  admit  that  the  physical  processes  in  the 
brain  precede  and  cause  the  various  phases  of 
psychical  life,  we  are  forced  to  the  assumption  that 
the  human  animal  is  a  conscious  automaton.  The 
consequences  of  this  hypothesis  are  far-reaching  and 
incisive.  Let  us  consider  them  in  their  relation  to 
the  idea  of  free  will. 

Persons  who  have  persuaded  themselves  of  the 
reality  of  human  freedom  have  based  their  belief 
mainly  on  two  considerations :  first,  on  the  fact  that 
we  are  often  conscious  of  exerting  freedom  of  will; 
secondly,  on  the  alleged  implication  of  freedom  in 
the  moral  consciousness.  I  think  it  can  easily  be 
shown  that  neither  of  these  feelings  is  a  reliable  guide 
to  truth  as  measured  by  those  realistic  standards 
whose  guidance  we  are  compelled  by  common  sense 
to  follow  in  practical  life.  Let  us  consider  the  case 
of  the  consciousness  of  free  will.  No  one  will  deny 
that  the  feeling  of  being  able  to  do  as  one  pleases  is 


80     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

one  of  the  most  definite  and  satisfactory  which  con- 
sciousness makes  possible  to  us.  But  is  it  on  this 
account  to  be  accepted  at  its  face  value?  By  no 
means.  The  methods  used  by  nature  in  attaining 
certain  important  ends  are  devious  and  involve  the 
use  of  illusions.  If  I  ask  a  hungry  child  why  he 
eats  his  food  with  such  gusto,  he  will  answer,  "Be- 
cause it  tastes  good."  The  fact  that  the  food  tastes 
good  is,  for  the  child,  a  wholly  sufficient  reason  for 
eating  it.  The  object  of  eating  is  merely  a  pleas- 
urable sensation,  and  it  is  not  until  the  child  has 
been  instructed  by  his  elders  that  he  vaguely  feels 
that  the  object  of  eating  is  to  provide  material  for 
growth  and  strength.  Indeed,  as  already  indicated 
in  these  pages,  it  has  only  within  the  last  century 
dawned  on  the  most  cultivated  minds  that  the  body 
gets  its  energy  from  the  combustion  of  food.  When 
dissociated  from  appetite,  the  process  of  eating  is 
one  that  inspires  disgust.  There  is  no  doubt  that 
mankind  in  general  has  been  duped  into  maintaining 
itself  by  the  belief  that  the  object  of  eating  is  to 
gratify  a  powerful  appetite.  A  similar  illusory 
sensual  aim  surrounds  the  sexual  appetite.  When 
persons  of  opposite  sex  are  attracted  strongly  to 
each  other,  the  sexual  element  ordinarily  enters  into 
the  attraction  in  some  degree,  no  matter  how  little 
the  subjects  of  the  attraction  are  conscious  of  this. 
And  when  sexual  intercourse  occurs,  it  is  because  the 
participating  individuals  are  under  the  sway  of  an 
imperative  sensory  excitation.     Only  rarely  is  the 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  81 

real  object  of  the  sexual  relation  (the  production  of 
a  child)  uppermost  in  the  minds  of  the  parents. 

The  human  mind  is  thus  shrouded  in  illusion  with 
respect  to  the  two  dominant  instincts,  for  it  is  in 
general  led  by  sensual  gratification  for  its  own  sake. 
Even  when  intelligence  is  so  developed  as  to  give 
the  mind  insight  regarding  the  real  objects  of  this 
gratification,  the  satisfaction  of  this  appetite  remains 
the  dominant  motive.  But  if  illusion  is  possible  in 
respect  to  such  vital  instincts,  why  should  it  not 
be  possible  in  other  directions  ?  What  guarantee  is 
there  that  a  feeling  of  freedom  is  what  it  seems  to 
be? 

That  argument  for  freedom  which  has  its  basis 
in  a  sense  of  moral  obligation  is  surely  not  to  be 
trusted,  for  this  sense  unsupported  by  the  prompt- 
ings of  analytical  intelligence  is  itself  liable  to  be  in 
high  degree  fallacious  as  a  guide  to  conduct.  How 
can  we  seriously  follow  the  dictates  of  a  feeling  which 
is  itself  subject  to  reversal  on  the  entry  of  new  feel- 
ings or  facts  which  may  abruptly  change  the  point 
of  view  ? 

But  the  assumption  that  the  sense  of  freedom  of 
will  is  illusory  is  not  inconsistent  with  the  view  that 
this  feeling  subserves  a  useful  purpose.  Just  as  the 
appetite  for  food  makes  possible  a  somewhat  orderly 
progress  of  nutrition,  so  does  the  sense  of  freedom 
give  courage  and  confidence  to  man  in  the  pursuit 
of  his  aims.  Without  the  appetite  for  food,  the 
nutrition  of  any  race  would  be  left  in  a  precarious 

G 


82    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

state;  without  the  sense  of  freedom,  the  construc- 
tive ideas  of  a  race  are  nipped  in  the  bud,  and  never 
reach  the  stage  of  achievement.  We  see  this 
paralysis  of  action  in  just  those  nations  which  are 
most  dominated  by  ideas  of  fataUsm. 

But  the  conviction  of  the  reality  of  freedom  of  the 
will  which  is  based  on  a  consciousness  of  this  freedom 
cannot  so  easily  be  brushed  aside.  If  we  are  not, 
in  reaUty,  free  agents,  how  does  it  happen  that  we 
feel  ourselves  to  be  such?  I  think  the  mechanistic 
conception  of  life  furnishes  us  with  at  least  a  partial 
answer,  based  on  the  view  that  the  sensation  of  will 
is  a  symbol  accompanying  or  following  certain 
physical  processes  in  the  brain  which  give  rise  to 
feelings  or  acts.  According  to  this  view,  the  sensa- 
tion of  willing  is  never  primary  or  spontaneous,  but 
always  marks  a  reaction  of  the  nervous  system  to 
some  impulse  or  group  of  impulses  originating 
ultimately  outside  the  body. 

Let  us  suppose  that  I  enter  a  bookseller's  shop  with 
the  intention  of  buying  an  edition  of  Browning's 
poems.  The  bookseller  places  before  me  two  edi- 
tions, alike  in  all  respects  except  in  the  color  of  the 
binding,  which  in  one  set  is  red,  in  the  other  blue. 
I  consider  the  two  colors  for  a  time,  and,  after  a  few 
moments  of  hesitancy,  decide  on  the  red-colored 
edition.  In  making  this  selection,  I  have  not  the 
slightest  doubt  as  to  my  freedom  to  choose  between 
the  red  and  the  blue  —  unless,  indeed,  I  pause  to 
think  about  the  underlying  history  of  my  choice. 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  83 

The  choice  as  between  red  and  blue  is  apparently- 
simple,  but  in  reality  complex.  It  is  based  on  three 
distinct  factors:  first,  the  cerebral  organization  at 
the  time  of  birth,  especially  with  respect  to  color 
perception  and  association;  secondly,  on  the  color 
experiences  of  the  entire  lifetime  and  their  various 
associations;  and,  finally,  on  immediate  cerebral 
experiences  linked  with  the  act  of  choice.  As  regards 
the  state  of  cerebral  organization,  it  is  important  to 
realize  that  at  birth  the  cerebral  material  itself  is 
not  in  a  wholly  blank  and  inexperienced  state,  but 
is  stamped  with  certain  hereditary  memories  of  the 
species.  By  virtue  of  hereditary  memories,  the 
brain  of  a  newborn  infant  may  be  not  wholly  insen- 
sible to  the  difference  between  the  colors  red  and 
blue,  and  may,  indeed,  have  already  been  impressed 
with  traces  which  are  the  basis  of  a  preferential 
reaction  toward  one  or  the  other.  As  regards  the 
color  experiences  of  the  entire  Ufetime,  these  may 
be  regarded  as  having  been  laid  down  in  strata  in 
the  receptive  parts  of  the  brain,  and  between  these 
strata  are  interposed  the  stratified  traces  of  other 
experiences,  probably  much  more  numerous  and 
quite  unconnected  with  color  sensation.  The  vivid- 
ness of  the  power  of  recollection  and  the  nature  of 
the  association  must  be  determined  by  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  brain  and  the  hereditary  memories 
inhering  in  it. 

These  three  factors  cannot  be  dissociated,  for  the 
first  determines  the  effectiveness  and  character  of  the 


84     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

color  experiences  made  in  the  second,  and  the  third 
factor  —  namely,  those  experiences  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  act  of  choice  —  operates  upon  a 
substratum  provided  by  the  first  and  second  fac- 
tors. The  third  factor  must  be  regarded  as  relatively 
insignificant  to  the  second  one.  In  an  experienced 
person,  it  is  the  last  link  in  a  long  chain  of  color 
experiences.  Its  importance  lies  in  the  fact  that  it 
seems  to  be  the  cause  of  the  choice,  while  in  reality  it 
is  the  obtrusive  determinant  and  only  a  small  ele- 
ment of  the  essential  cause.  The  antecedent  color 
impressions  may,  in  their  entirety,  have  been  a 
thousand  times  as  prolonged  or  intense  as  the  final 
one  which  apparently  effected  the  choice.  Yet 
these  many  impressions  are  not  singly  remembered, 
but,  if  recalled  at  all,  are  fused  into  a  vague  and 
indefinable  memory  in  such  a  way  as  not  consciously 
to  enter  into  my  choice.  Yet  despite  this  apparent 
unobtrusiveness,  it  is  this  past  experience  in  its 
entirety  which  is  the  actual  basis  of  my  choice  —  the 
act  of  choice  being  merely  an  elaborate  automatic 
reaction  in  which  the  colors  before  me  act  as  excitants. 
I  feel  my  choice  to  be  free  because  I  am  conscious 
of  a  desire  to  reach  a  conclusion  and  of  satisfaction 
in  having  reached  it.  But  I  quite  fail  to  recognize 
(without  deUberate  and  unwonted  analytical  effort) 
the  real,  underlying  cause  of  my  choice.  When  I 
come  to  reflect  on  the  entire  history  of  this  little 
option  in  color,  I  am  unable  to  convince  myself  that 
I  have  been  in  reality  free  at  any  point  in  the  pro- 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  85 

cess.  It  seems  to  me  that  I  have  been  free  only  in 
the  sense  that  I  have  had  the  feehng  of  freedom,  and 
when  I  examine  this  feeling  it  vanishes  without 
leaving  a  definable  or  satisfactory  residuum.  In 
choosing  red  rather  than  blue,  I  am  left  with  the 
feeling  that  I  might  have  chosen  blue  rather  than 
red,  provided,  of  course,  that  I  do  not  deliberately 
subject  the  process  to  psychological  scrutiny.  Yet 
I  am  compelled  to  think  this  feeling  quite  illusory, 
however  gratifying  it  may  be  to  my  self-confidence 
and  self-esteem.  For  it  is  clear  to  me  that  my  choice 
of  red  as  against  blue  was  as  definitely  fixed  and 
predetermined  in  the  refined  physical  mechanisms  of 
my  brain,  as  is  the  sex  of  a  child  at  the  instant  of 
union  of  the  sperm  head  with  the  nucleus  of  the 
ovum.  Just  as  the  sex  of  the  child  does  not  become 
apparent  until  some  time  after  the  fatal  impregna- 
tion, so  the  choice  of  a  man  may  not  become  apparent 
until  long  after  all  its  essential  elements  have  been 
fixed.  No  methods  of  science  now  at  command  can 
enable  us  to  say  surely  whether  a  newly  impregnated 
human  egg  is  destined  for  male  or  female,  despite 
the  fact  that  the  data  of  experimental  biology  have 
rendered  it  a  practical  certainty  that  the  sex  is  in 
reality  fixed.  And  where  a  human  choice  depends 
on  nicely  balanced  factors,  we  cannot  predict  how 
that  choice  will  be  made.  Yet  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  factors  in  every  choice  are  fatally  predetermined 
and  that  only  our  ignorance  of  underlying  conditions 
makes  an  accurate  prediction  impossible.     Spinoza 


86    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

epigrammatically  expressed  this  view  when  he  said : 
"Our  feeUng  of  free  will  is  but  ignorance  of  the  causes 
that  make  us  act." 

This  is  frankly  fatahstic  doctrine,  but  it  need  not 
be  either  blind  or  depressing.  On  the  contrary,  I 
believe  a  scientific  fatalism  to  be  both  enlightening 
and  encouraging  to  serious  natures.  If  it  brings 
sobering  influences  into  life,  which  in  some  degree 
dissipate  the  cloud  effect  of  Yoganidra,  it  carries 
compensations  in  the  form  of  increased  efficiency, 
greater  understanding,  and,  above  all,  greater  toler- 
ance of  the  faults  and  sins  of  the  human  race.  It  is 
worth  while  to  consider  briefly  the  doctrine  of  scien- 
tific fatalism  in  some  of  its  relations  to  our  individual 
conduct  and  to  the  conduct  of  other  people. 

When  an  educated  individual  of  mature  years 
looks  back  on  his  career,  it  is  inconceivable  that  he 
should  not  recall  many  thoughts  and  acts  which  he 
would  wish  to  have  been  otherwise.  According  to 
his  temperament  and  training,  he  will  regard  the 
mistakes  of  the  past  with  the  equanimity  of  the  man 
of  affairs  who  has  learned  to  lose  no  energy  in  vain 
regrets,  or  will  suffer  periods  of  depression  from 
disgust  with  the  failure  to  attain  a  higher  level  of 
thought  and  action.  There  exists  always  the  pos- 
sibihty  that  a  philosophical  attitude  cognizant  of  the 
fatahstic  elements  that  underlie  and  govern  every 
life  will  aid  in  reaching  such  higher  levels  in  future 
experience.  The  elements  which  demand  recogni- 
tion are  those  which  have  been 'already  mentioned. 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  87 

First,  there  is  the  organization  of  the  nervous 
system.  This  must  be  regarded  as  absolutely  per- 
sonal or  specific  for  each  human  individual.  If  we 
knew  enough  about  the  make-up  of  human  brains, 
we  could  probably  distinguish  many  types  of  organi- 
zation, but  while  those  organs  falling  within  each  type 
would  resemble  each  other  closely,  each  brain  would, 
nevertheless,  possess  distinctive  features.  One  is 
prone  to  think  of  the  newly  bom  child  as  lacking  in 
the  physical  traces  of  experience;  and  there  is  one 
sort  of  experience  of  which  the  brain  of  the  newly 
born  child  is  apparently  destitute.  The  phenomena 
of  instinct  have  their  probable  explanation  in  the 
records  or  latent  memories  of  race  experiences, 
which,  in  the  helpful  hypothesis  of  Semon,  are 
known  as  the  mneme.  When  a  newborn  infant 
grasps  a  bar  with  its  toes  in  simian  fashion,  it  does 
so  in  response  to  the  awakening  of  this  racial  memory. 
The  respective  centers  have  thus  been  written  upon 
by  impressions  carried  in  the  germ  plasm. 

Now  if  any  fact  emerges  with  clearness,  it  is  that 
the  individual  human  being  is  answerable  neither  for 
his  nervous  organization  nor  for  the  imprints  or 
engrams  which  have  sunk  into  that  organization. 
These  are  things  which  he  must  accept  as  he  accepts 
the  weather — not  necessarily  with  approval,  but 
with  acquiescence.  The  second  element  which 
molds  his  life  history  and  personality  is  made  up 
of  the  massed  experiences  of  his  career,  which  have 
reacted  with  the  organization  of  the  brain  in  such  a 


88     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

way  as  to  secure  a  definite  yet  plastic  product. 
Here  again  there  can  be  no  question  of  responsibility 
until  there  have  been  awakened  those  symbols  of  a 
certain  kind  of  cerebral  action  which  we  call  will. 
Let  us  suppose  that  the  will  is  weak,  that  is  to  say, 
offers  little  resistance  to  sensual  enticements,  even 
when  these  are  vaguely  or  clearly  recognized  to  lead 
to  undesirable  results.  This  weakness  of  inhibition 
has  its  basis  in  the  organization  of  the  brain,  but 
cannot  be  wholly  referred  to  it  because  it  is  a  prod- 
uct in  which  the  sum  of  all  experiences  (or  training) 
is  also  a  factor.  Given  a  cerebral  organization  of 
doubtful  stability  (or  in  the  somewhat  inadequate 
language  of  physiology,  an  organization  character- 
ized by  lower  cerebral  and  spinal  reflexes  dispro- 
portionately active  in  comparison  with  the  inhibitory 
mechanism  of  the  cortical  portion  of  the  brain),  the 
outcome  in  the  form  of  conduct  must  depend  mainly 
on  the  character  of  the  external  influences  that  have 
come  into  operation.  If  these  are  of  an  enlighten- 
ing kind,  they  will  have  opposed  an  obstacle  to 
thoughtless  acts  based  on  elaborate  reflexes,  or  will 
have  moderated  the  disposition  to  more  deliberate 
acts  which  accord  badly  with  the  best  dictates  of 
experience.  If,  on  the  contrary,  the  external  influ- 
ences have  not  awakened  the  inteUigence  and  good 
feeling  necessary  to  hold  in  check  those  complex 
reflexes  which  dispose  to  hurtful  action,  there  will 
result  what  we  call  mistaken  or  bad  conduct.  If  an 
inviting  alcohoUc  drink  is  set  before  me  when  I  am 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  89 

thirsty,  it  will  intensify  in  me  the  desire  to  slake  my 
thirst.  The  sensation  is  a  quite  normal  one,  but  it 
does  not  follow  that  it  is  best  for  me  to  respond  to  it 
by  taking  the  drink.  Experience  may  have  shown 
me  that  the  indulgence  in  drinks  of  this  kind  is 
liable  to  be  followed  by  undesirable  consequences. 
If,  knowing  of  these  consequences,  I  yield  to  the 
temptation  that  has  presented  itself,  I  am  acting  in 
opposition  to  a  normal  instinct  of  self-preservation, 
and  if  this  instinct  is  repeatedly  defied,  the  error 
in  conduct  may  ultimately  jeopardize  my  life  and 
so  tend  to  eliminate  an  individual  possessing  a  defec- 
tive nervous  system.  For  this  hurtful  conduct 
clearly  has  its  origin  in  a  nervous  system  defective 
in  the  sense  that  it  shows  a  want  of  balance  between 
the  reflexes  subserving  appetite  and  the  higher 
mechanisms  of  control.  I  cannot  feel  that  blame 
should  attach  to  defects  of  this  kind,  or  to  the  uncon- 
trolled acts  which  come  from  them.  They  seem 
rather  the  proper  objects  of  pity  and  help.  By  help 
I  mean  all  rational  restraining  and  controlling  influ- 
ences brought  to  bear  from  outside.  The  fact  that 
a  human  nervous  system  has  repeatedly  given  evi- 
dence of  lack  of  stability  in  one  or  more  directions 
does  not  necessarily  show  that  under  favorable 
environment  a  better  balance  may  not  be  estab- 
lished between  the  reflexes  subserving  appetite  and 
the  higher  mechanisms  of  inhibition  located  in  the 
cerebral  cortex.  But  to  establish  this  improved 
balance,  it  is  evident  that  we  must  look  for  outside 


90    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

help,  since  the  unstable  nervous  system  we  are  con- 
sidering has  shown  itself  incapable  of  gaining  this 
balance  by  wholly  spontaneous  reactions.  Almost 
any  person  who  recognizes  that  his  conduct  has  been 
characterized  by  habitual  lack  of  inhibition  in  one 
direction  or  another  will  realize  also  that  the  de- 
sired balance  might  have  been  attained  had  he  been 
so  fortunate  as  to  be  subjected  to  insistent  corrective 
human  influences  from  outside.  Such  a  belief  is 
justified  by  the  facts  of  experience.  In  other  words, 
there  exist  powerful  educational  corrective  forces 
which  may  be  utilized  for  the  benefit  of  the  very 
many  nervous  systems  which  need  such  outside  help 
to  aid  them  in  establishing  that  balance  between 
lower  and  higher  centers  which  is  necessary  to 
minimize  the  great  losses  of  human  energy  and 
efficiency  which  are  the  expression  of  the  failure  to 
attain  such  a  balance.  Perhaps  the  greatest  need 
of  the  human  race  is  an  enormous  increase  in  the 
forces  of  education  which  may  be  applied  by  superior 
and  balanced  nervous  systems  to  those  in  which 
there  exists  a  want  of  proportion  between  the  reflexes 
subserving  fundamental  appetites  and  those  inhibit- 
ing centers  which  are  their  physiological  guardians. 
The  individual  who  has  come  to  realize  the  automatic 
character  of  his  own  acts  and  the  fatalism  which 
surrounds  them  will  learn  not  to  waste  time  and 
regrets  for  his  mistakes,  but  will  bend  his  energies 
to  the  avoidance  of  mistakes  of  the  same  sort,  and 
he  will  do  this  because  the  stimuli  of  experience  set 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  91 

in  motion  elaborate  cerebral  reactions  which  have 
their  basis  in  the  organization  of  the  brain.  The 
automatic  mechanism  which  thus  reacts  not  merely 
to  stimuli  arising  within  the  organism,  but  also  to 
many  stimuli  from  outside,  is  a  mechanism  of  extreme 
complexity,  delicacy,  and  plasticity.  But  I  cannot 
see  that  these  qualities  which  make  possible  a  great 
variety  of  emotions  and  feelings  and  acts,  following 
each  other  in  rapid  and  uninterrupted  succession, 
give  any  evidence  of  a  freedom  of  action  or  of  ultra- 
mechanistic  forces.  In  the  period  of  vigorous  growth 
and  increasing  powers,  it  is  difficult  for  people  to 
believe  themselves  to  be  essentially  automata,  for  it 
is  not  at  once  obvious  that  the  various  increasingly 
complicated  acts  and  achievements  of  life  are  simply 
expressions  of  growing  complexity  in  the  machinery 
of  the  nervous  system  which  thus  becomes  able  to 
support  more  and  more  elaborate  reactions.  But 
in  the  period  of  declining  powers,  of  failing  memory, 
or  of  more  and  more  restricted  ideas,  the  skeleton  of 
mechanism  becomes  more  obtrusively  apparent,  and 
the  atrophy  of  the  brain  engine  gives  the  undeniable 
clew  to  this  simplification  in  automatism. 

The  recognition  of  the  fatalistic  and  automatic 
nature  of  the  acts  of  other  people  must  follow  on  its 
detection  in  one's  own  life.  A  scientific  fatalistic 
personal  creed  must,  therefore,  powerfully  influence 
the  judgments  formed  on  the  conduct  of  other  per- 
sons. The  better  understanding  of  the  causes  of 
conduct  in  others  must  necessarily  cultivate  in  us  a 


92     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

greater  leniency  towards  acts  not  in  accord  with 
our  own  views.  Such  acts  we  shall  learn  to  refer 
with  some  confidence  to  the  various  factors  which 
find  expression  in  them.  The  fixed  elements  in 
these  acts  we  shall  learn  to  accept,  but  at  the  same 
time  we  shall  recognize  the  possibility  of  preventing 
their  recurrence  by  means  of  legitimate  interference. 
The  use  of  adequate  and  temperate  correctives  in 
place  of  vindictive  and  revengeful  methods  of  pun- 
ishment should  be  a  result  of  a  better  insight  into 
the  causes  of  undesirable  conduct.  The  attitude  of 
parents  toward  children  and  of  society  toward 
criminals  could  be  greatly  improved  by  enlightened 
biological  and  philosophical  training.  The  note- 
worthy change  in  feeling  in  relation  to  the  insane  is 
a  good  example  of  what  can  be  accomplished  through 
the  growth  of  a  humane  scientific  conception. 

A  position  of  enlightened  and  scientific  fatalism 
which  takes  account  of  the  wonderful  plasticity  of 
the  brain  in  respect  to  reactions  and  impressions  or 
engrams  must  ultimately  soften  the  over-rigid  ideas 
of  right  and  wrong  which  still  prevail.  The  human 
automaton  is  dominated  by  two  fundamental  in- 
stincts— the  self -preservative  and  the  sexual.  There 
are  few  persons  whose  instincts  in  these  direc- 
tions do  not  require  to  be  regulated  and  inhibited  at 
some  period  of  their  Uves.  In  our  age,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  all  the  miseries  of  life  and  nearly  all 
the  crimes  are  traceable  to  perversions  of  one  or 
both  of  these  instincts,  which  continually  crop  out 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  93 

in  excessive  egotism  and  sensuality.  The  world  is 
not  very  intelligent  in  its  way  of  looking  at  these 
outbreaks.  There  have  gradually  emerged  conven- 
tional standards  of  behavior  which  leave  much  to  be 
desired  in  regard  to  ideas  of  what  is  good  and  what 
is  bad.  These  grossly  imperfect  and  inconsistent 
standards  are  due  to  a  delay  or  failure  in  appreciat- 
ing the  biological  causes  of  conduct.  Conduct  is 
the  expression  through  the  muscular  system  of  de- 
sires, feelings,  and  emotions  which  are  functions  of 
the  nervous  system.  The  human  nervous  system, 
notwithstanding  its  great  complexity,  must  be 
regarded  as  exemplifying  the  same  forces  and  laws 
of  nature  as  less  complex  and  less  highly  organized 
aggregations  of  matter.  But  we  cannot  attribute 
to  nature  either  goodness  or  badness.  Nature  is 
neither  good  nor  bad,  neither  right  nor  wrong, 
neither  kind  nor  cruel.  She  is  simply  consistent. 
Yet  the  consistency  of  nature  is  not  always  simple 
and  obvious,  for  the  reason  that  her  happenings  are 
often  the  result  of  conflicting  forces.  When  we 
speak  of  human  conduct  as  good  or  bad,  right  or 
wrong,  kind  or  cruel,  we  simply  mean  that  larger 
or  smaller  groups  of  human  beings  in  the  course  of 
their  culture  have  come  to  designate  or  describe  va- 
rious acts,  of  which  they  approve  or  disapprove,  by 
means  of  these  terms,  associating  them  sometimes 
with  rather  well-defined  conceptions,  at  other  times 
with  more  vague  ideas.  These  conventional  con- 
ceptions, reflecting  as  they  do  the  composite  yet 


94     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

somewhat  plastic  verdicts  of  mankind,  deserve  a 
respectful  attention.  Generally,  perhaps,  they  con- 
tain at  least  the  germ  of  justice,  yet  judged  from  the 
biological  standpoint  these  verdicts  are  liable  to  be 
erroneous  and  unintelligent.  The  different  ideas  of 
right  and  wrong  that  are  prevalent  among  different 
peoples,  supposedly  civilized,  attest  the  lack  of  uni- 
formity which  prevails  in  the  judgment  of  human 
conduct.  It  is  of  the  utmost  importance  for  the 
estabUshment  of  humane  and  enlightened  standards 
of  judgment  that  we  should  realize  the  fallacious 
nature  of  all  attempts  to  set  rigid  definitions  to  the 
words  "right"  and  "wrong."  To  imagine  that 
these  words  connote  fundamental  differences  in  con- 
duct is  a  mistake  which  has  had  many  unfortu- 
nate consequences,  owing  to  the  facility  with  which 
disapproval  leads  to  harsh  punishments.  A  girl 
who  kills  her  illegitimate  child  because  hypercritical 
social  ostracism  has  brought  profound  discourage- 
ment to  her  is  severely  punished  for  the  act  by  the 
same  society  which  has  been  an  active  factor  in 
determining  her  act.  From  the  standpoint  of  the 
conventional  judge,  her  act  is  one  of  the  blackest  of 
crimes,  while  from  a  scientific  standpoint,  it  was 
merely  the  natural  automatic  response  to  an  intol- 
erable state  of  affairs  for  which  the  unfeeling  attitude 
of  society  was  largely  answerable.  It  might  help 
somewhat  if  people  should  agree  to  call  those  acts 
good  which,  on  the  whole,  appeal"  to  be  in  accordance 
with  natural  laws  and  in  the  direction  of  promoting 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  95 

the  best  human  ideas  based  on  the  recognition  of 
biological  laws.  But  even  a  scientific  standard 
would  be  difficult  to  apply  on  account  of  the  in- 
tricacy of  the  situation  which  frequently  comes  to 
notice.  A  man  may  commit  many  acts  opposed  to 
nature,  and  therefore  bad  in  their  character,  yet  his 
helpfulness  to  human  interests  at  large  may  be  so 
great  as  to  more  than  offset  the  acts  we  call  bad, 
and  so  leave  in  his  favor  a  balance  of  what  we  call 
goodness.  But  if  it  cannot  be  maintained  that  the 
mechanistic  view  of  life  can  at  present  give  us  more 
than  a  clew  to  the  ways  of  reaching  more  reasonable 
conceptions  and  appraisals  of  human  conduct,  one 
great  and  useful  service  may  be  claimed  for  it.  By 
showing  us  at  once  the  extreme  complexity  of  the 
biological  factors  that  determine  conduct  and  our 
ignorance  of  the  many  phases  of  these  processes,  it 
shows  us  the  futility  and  injustice  of  forming  hasty 
judgments  on  the  behavior  of  the  human  beings 
whom  the  illusory  chances  of  life  bring  within  our 
acquaintance.  At  the  same  time  it  extends  a  rea- 
sonable hope  that  much  more  intelligent  and  humane 
appraisals  of  conduct  will  follow  the  extension  of  a 
biological  point  of  view  among  the  masses  of  the 
people.  Pope's  oft-quoted  saying,  ''The  proper 
study  of  mankind  is  man,"  makes  a  good  general 
statement  of  the  leading  aim  of  human  striving.  But 
if  the  study  of  man  is  to  bear  fruit  in  gentle  and 
sympathetic  relations  between  human  beings,  that 
study  must  seek  a  broad  basis  in  those  sciences  which 


96    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

give  increasing  insight  into  the  mechanisms  govern- 
ing human  character. 

Thus  the  mechanistic  view  of  human  Ufe  and  the 
scientific  fatahsm  with  which  it  is  interwoven  do 
not  lead  to  hopeless  resignation.  They  do  not 
mean  an  abandonment  of  desires  and  interests  in 
favor  of  a  Hindu-like  contemplation  of  the  navel. 
On  the  contrary,  they  point  unmistakably  toward  the 
utilization  of  the  great  potential  forces  that  exist  in 
nearly  every  normal  individual.  It  has  probably 
never  happened  that  a  human  brain  has  been  edu- 
cated or  developed  to  anything  like  its  real  capac- 
ity; nor  is  it  likely  that  such  a  development  will 
ever  take  place.  But  ordinarily  the  results  do  not 
merely  fail  to  approach  the  ideal,  but  fall  pitifully 
below  it.  A  locomotive  which  fails  to  develop  more 
than  a  small  fraction  of  its  potential  capacity  would 
be  regarded  as  a  failure  and  would  quickly  be 
replaced  by  one  of  a  better  type.  Probably  most  hu- 
man nervous  systems  develop  only  a  small  fraction 
of  what  is  within  their  power,  either  quantitatively 
or  qualitatively.  The  recognition  of  this  will  lead 
to  increasingly  intelligent  efforts  in  the  development 
of  personality,  —  in  other  words,  to  improved  educa- 
tion. Soientific  fatalism  recognizes  not  merely  the 
inherent  limitations  of  the  human  mechanism  (which 
depend  upon  the  quality  and  inherited  memories  of 
its  protoplasm),  but  also  the  nearly  limitless  possi- 
bilities of  reaction  in  a  machine  so  labile  and  recep- 
tively capacious  as  the  nervous  system.     To  develop 


CONSCIOUSNESS  AND  THE  WILL  97 

most  eflBciently  the  reactions  that  are  inherently- 
possible  outside  help  is  needed,  the  help  derivable 
from  contacts  with  nature,  from  books,  and  espe- 
cially from  the  experience,  example,  and  advice  of 
other  human  beings.  Such  help  makes  possible  a 
nearer  approach  to  individualistic  development. 
But  just  in  so  far  as  this  development  of  an  individ- 
ual has  been  facilitated  by  the  help  of  other  peo- 
ple, there  is  created  an  obligation,  in  the  person  so 
aided,  to  give  help  to  those  who  require  it  under 
conditions  that  do  not  endanger  personal  efficiency 
and  the  possibility  of  further  indi\ddual  progress. 
This  interchange  of  help  is,  and  must  always  remain, 
an  essential  feature  of  civilization,  but  it  can  reach 
a  high  degree  of  efficiency  only  where  the  utmost 
encouragement  is  given  to  the  most  enlightened 
interests  of  the  individual.  The  doctrine  of  scien- 
tific fatalism  thus  takes  account  of  the  great  possi- 
bilities of  the  individual  and  of  the  race.  It  teaches 
that  each  human  being  should  have  the  best  obtain- 
able chance  for  self-development,  and  becomes  the 
enemy  of  social  conditions  which  stand  in  the  way 
of  such  opportunity.  It  teaches  that  an  individual 
should  be  judged  in  relation  to  the  chance  he  has  had 
for  self-improvement,  and  not  by  any  arbitrary 
standard.  But  it  does  not  teach  that  any  two 
human  beings  are  equal  in  potential  for  achieve- 
ment. It  expects  many  failures,  but  it  judges  them 
leniently.  It  counts  on  the  emergence  from  time 
to   time   of  human  beings  able  to  point  out  new 


98    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

relationships  between  old  niaterials;  yet  it  does 
not  overpraise  these  successes.  It  looks  hopefully 
to  the  future  because  it  sees  in  the  human  germ 
plasm  a  tendency  to  improve  in  the  presence  of 
reasonably  friendly  surroundings.  It  is  the  enemy 
of  the  doctrine  of  laissez  faire,  believing  in  intelligent 
interference  and  regulation  in  all  directions.  It 
recognizes  the  dangers  of  incompetent  interference, 
but  knows  that  progress  can  be  made  only  by  taking 
some  risks  in  experimentation.  It  recognizes  that 
there  are  limits  to  the  utility  of  interference  in  human 
affairs,  but  teaches  that  these  can  be  found  only  by 
trial.  And  finally,  the  doctrine  of  scientific  fatalism 
looks  only  for  results  exactly  proportioned  to  the 
factors  which  determine  personality  —  the  forces 
inherent  in  the  germ  plasm  and  the  external  forces 
which  have  been  brought  into  action  upon  these 
primitive  materials. 


BOOK  II.    THE  SELF-PRESERVATIVE 
INSTINCT 

CHAPTER  rV 

THE   INSTINCT   OF   SURVIVAL 

The  instinct  of  survival  or  of  self-preservation  is, 
in  general,  the  controlling  animal  instinct,  notwith- 
standing that  its  outward  expressions  may  be 
temporarily  checked  by  the  intrusion  of  other  funda- 
mental and  highly  organized  feelings  or  impulses. 
The  instinct  most  likely  to  intrude  on  the  survival 
instinct  is  the  instinct  of  sex,  which  stands  in  the 
same  relation  to  the  preservation  of  the  race  as  does 
the  survival  instinct  to  the  preservation  of  the  indi- 
vidual. And  in  man,  other  instincts  of  dignity  or 
importance,  as  that  of  imitation,  of  curiosity,  or  of 
sympathy,  may  for  a  time  supplant  the  outward 
signs  of  the  survival  instinct,  although  it  is  clear  that 
these  reactions  are  functions  of  relatively  recent 
origin  growing  out  of  the  more  fundamental  ones. 

It  has  been  already  pointed  out  that  the  various 
cells  of  the  animal  organism  are  endowed  with  dis- 
tinct and  elaborate  powers  of  defense,  powers  on 
which  the  maintenance  of  the  life  of  the  individual 
is  closely  dependent.  Since  these  powers  reside  in 
the  organization  of  the  cells,  expressing  mainly  their 

99 


100    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

inherited  physical  and  chemical  properties,  they 
may  be  regarded  as  the  basis  of  the  instinct  of  sur- 
vival or  self-preservation.  But  when  we  ordinarily 
talk  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  we  do  not 
picture  in  our  minds  these  defensive  powers  of  the 
cell.  We  mean  rather  these  qualities  of  the  indi- 
vidual as  a  whole  which  enable  him,  and  seem  to 
constrain  him,  to  look  out  for  his  own  interests  as 
opposed  to  the  similar  interests  of  other  individuals. 
We  have  in  mind  acts  of  offense  and  defense  con- 
nected especially  with  personal  maintenance,  based 
on  reactions  of  the  nervous  mechanism. 

Is  there  not,  in  reality,  a  close  connection  between 
these  self-protective  reactions  of  the  nervous  system 
and  the  defensive  powers  or  survival  instincts  of  the 
non-nervous  cells  of  the  body?  Nearly  every  kind 
of  fixed  cell  in  the  body  receives  nervous  filaments 
directly  or  indirectly  connecting  it  with  the  central 
nervous  mechanism.  I  see  nothing  improbable  in 
the  view  that  the  receiving  centers,  including  the 
sentient  apparatus  of  the  nervous  system,  are  kept 
telegraphically  informed  in  regard  to  the  multiple 
needs  of  the  cells  with  which  they  are  in  mechanical 
connection.  And  if  this  be  true,  I  see  no  serious 
objection  to  the  view  that  the  nervous  system,  as  a 
whole,  reflects  the  combined  survival  instincts  of 
the  cells  which  it  serves.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems 
that  such  a  view  could  be  successfully  defended  in 
respect  to  many  details  implicated  in  its  acceptance. 
It  has  ah-eady  been  pointed  out  that  the  cellular 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  101 

elements  of  the  nervous  system  itself  are  endowed 
with  only  a  very  limited  capacity  for  defense  —  that 
the  survival  powers  of  nervous  tissues  are  small  as 
compared  with  those  of  glandular  organs.  There 
thus  appears  a  well-defined  differentiation  of  the 
organism  in  relation  to  the  self-preservative  instinct 
in  general,  the  nervous  system  expressing  in  its 
manifold  adjustments  not  merely  the  reactions  of 
adaptation  to  the  outer  world,  but  also  the  adapta- 
tions especially  demanded  by  the  active  cells  of  the 
body.  The  instinct  in  its  narrow  sense  may  be  said 
to  reside  especially  in  the  nearly  defenseless  nervous 
system,  whereas  the  ultimate  powers  of  defense — ■ 
which  we  are  assuming  to  be  the  basis  of  the  survival 
instinct  —  lie  chiefly  in  the  glandular  cells,  inex- 
pressive, and  relatively  insentient  in  the  ordinary 
meaning  of  these  words.  And  I  think  that  we  are 
safe  in  believing  that  just  as  the  general  body  cells 
with  their  rich  endowment  of  survival  powers  find 
in  the  nervous  system  their  agent  for  instinctive 
demonstrations,  so  the  sexual  cells  with  their  repro- 
ductive powers  find  an  expressional  outlet  through 
the  nervous  system  in  those  feelings  and  acts — anti- 
thetical in  many  ways  to  the  personal  survival 
instincts  —  which  we  interpret  as  the  sexual  instinct. 
The  most  fundamental  expression  of  the  self- 
preservative  instinct  is  the  appetite  for  food,  an 
admirable  example  of  a  nervous  expression  of  the 
needs  of  the  body  or  somatic  cells.  We  must 
comment  on  some  of  the  effects  of  this  appetite. 


102    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

The  output  of  energy  from  the  body  machinery  is 
attended  by  a  loss  of  material  substance,  and  this 
loss  is  continuous,  even  when  that  machinery  is  in, 
what  we  call,  the  resting  state,  as  in  sleep,  where  the 
voluntary  muscles  and  mind  are  quiet.  The  output 
of  energy  lasts  as  long  as  the  spark  of  life  is  unex- 
tinguished, because  just  so  long  must  the  production 
of  animal  heat  continue.  If  there  are  no  new 
sources  of  energy  from  food,  the  outflow  of  energy  is 
at  the  expense  of  materials  which  are  stored,  such  as 
glycogen  and  fat,  and  to  a  lesser  extent  the  living 
protoplasm  itself.  The  need  for  new  supplies  of 
combustible  material  is  associated  with  nervous 
impulses  passing  from  the  glandular  cells  of  the 
digestive  organs  to  the  central  nervous  system  and 
rising  into  consciousness  as  hunger.  If  by  some 
drug  the  appetite  for  food  should  be  abolished,  the 
life  of  the  organism  would  soon  come  to  an  end,  and 
during  the  period  of  starvation  the  body  would  live 
on  its  own  tissues,  with  a  restricted  output  of  energy. 
So  completely  does  self-preservation  depend  on  the 
appetite  which  respects  the  needs  of  the  body  cells 
—  the  somatic  appetite  as  we  have  called  it  to  dis- 
tinguish it  from  the  sexual. 


The  hunger  for  food  constitutes  the  chief  occa- 
sion for  releasing  that  energy  of  performance  which 
we  call  the  power  of  the  will;  for,  until  appetite  is 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  103 

gratified,  man,  like  lower  animals,  has  a  powerful 
incentive  to  search  actively  for  nutriment  and  to 
defend  his  real  or  fancied  rights  to  it  by  active 
hostility  to  competitors.  A  real  advantage  arising 
from  this  enforced  search  for  food  is  that  the  ef- 
fort spent  in  getting  it  helps  to  maintain  physical 
vigor.  So  soon  as  man  develops  sufficient  imagina- 
tion to  strive,  not  merely  for  his  immediate  needs, 
but  also  to  forestall  his  future  ones,  by  accumulating 
a  food  supply,  whether  by  killing  game  or  by  cultivat- 
ing the  land,  he  becomes  a  capitalist.  This  intro- 
duces an  entirely  new  element  into  his  life,  and  one 
which  operates  not  wholly  to  his  advantage.  To  be 
able  to  eat  as  much  and  as  often  as  one  wills  and,  as 
in  modern  life,  to  have  food  so  served  as  to  over- 
stimulate  the  palate,  leads  inevitably  to  excess  in 
food  and  to  undue  prominence  of  the  pleasures  of  the 
table  in  the  general  scheme  of  life.  The  effects  of 
gormandizing  are  seen  at  all  ages  from  the  period 
of  infancy,  when  the  mother  overfeeds  her  child  in 
the  belief  that  the  more  abundant  the  food,  the  better 
the  development,  to  the  strivings  of  senility  to  build 
up  the  system  by  tempting  the  appetite.  It  is  not 
simple  to  define  the  physical  evils  that  follow  exces- 
sive feeding  mainly  because,  aside  from  obvious 
derangements  of  digestion,  these  evils  are  partly 
due  to  associated  errors  in  living,  such  as  excessive 
work  and  undue  emotional  indulgence  associated 
with  indoor  life.  But  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say 
that  man  suffers  from  this  excess  many  ills  that  entail 


104    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

a  loss  of  energy  to  the  organism  and  a  deterioration 
of  temper  and  character,  and  probably  (in  associa- 
tion with  nervous  influences)  a  state  of  premature 
seniHty.  The  remedy  for  this  waste  of  human  power 
is  to  be  found  only  in  methods  of  education  which 
develop  in  the  inhibitory  cortical  centers  of  the 
brain  the  needful  self-control,  and  which  teach  the 
rational  use  of  food  as  a  source  of  energy  and  dis- 
courage the  overdevelopment  of  the  element  of 
self-gratification. 

The  capitalism  which  shows  itself  in  the  accumu- 
lation of  food  stores  early  exhibits  itself  in  efforts 
at  housing  man  and  the  fruits  of  his  industry. 
This  leads  in  time  to  the  substitution  of  indoor  life 
for  outdoor  life  in  a  considerable  measure.  Two 
important  consequences  come  in  the  train  of  this 
progress  which  must  be  charged  to  the  debit  side  of 
the  account.  First,  a  loss  of  interest  in  nature  and 
the  resultant  decadence  of  a  valuable  kind  of  inspira- 
tion and  knowledge;  and  second,  a  reduction  in 
outdoor  hfe  and  exercise  which  favors  a  decUne  in 
physical  health  and  which  shows  itself  (especially  in 
overheated  houses)  in  a  greater  susceptibility  to 
many  kinds  of  infections,  and  to  overdevelopment 
of  the  emotional  and  sensual  side  of  the  character. 
An  unexpected  result  of  excessive  indoor  life  in 
modern  communities  is  a  greater  susceptibility  to 
tuberculosis,  and  it  is  highly  suggestive  to  note  the 
certainly  emergent  fact  that  the  best  treatment  of 
this  disease  involves  outdoor  Ufe  by  day  and  by  night; 


THE  ESTSTINCT   OF  SURVIVAL  105 

that  is,  a  return  to  primitive  conditions.  Moreover, 
it  is  becoming  each  day  more  and  more  clear  that 
many  other  physical  disorders  are  best  treated  in 
this  manner ;  and  so  strongly  is  this  idea  gaining 
ground  that  modern  hospitals  are  providing  them- 
selves with  facilities  for  giving  many  of  their  patients 
the  opportunity  of  li\dng  out  of  doors  the  greater  part 
of  the  time,  in  summer  and  winter,  by  day  and  by 
night. 

The  accumulation  of  food  supplies  in  response  to 
the  undeniable  stimuli  of  appetite  brings  satisfac- 
tion to  man  in  various  ways.  First,  it  supphes  the 
source  of  free  gratification  of  appetite  for  the  indi- 
vidual himself,  and  for  those  who  are  most  nearly 
related  to  him.  Secondly,  it  leads  to  an  increase  in 
his  personal  importance  in  the  community,  which 
is  gratifjdng  to  that  form  of  self-consciousness  that 
derives  pleasure  from  the  sense  of  recognition  of 
one's  powers ;  that  is,  what  we  call  vanity.  More- 
over, the  actual  increase  of  personal  power  and 
influence  is  one  of  the  most  intelligible  effects  of 
this  primitive  form  of  capitahsm.  Finally,  there 
is  a  distinctively  pleasurable  sensation  which,  in 
some  degree  at  least,  arises  not  only  in  primitive, 
but  in  modern,  men  from  the  sense  of  exclusive 
ownership;  that  is,  the  pleasure  that  comes  from 
being  arbitrarily  able  to  influence  the  actions  of 
others,  through  the  ability  to  exclude  them  from 
that  which  has  been  appropriated.  This  is  a  very 
deep-seated  feeling  —  an  outgrowth  of  the  instinct 


106    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

of  self-preservation,  and  may  be  greatly  exaggerated 
under  some  conditions  so  as  to  show  itself  in  the 
hoarding  of  the  miser  and  in  other  manifestations 
that  depend  on  overattention  to  that  which  has  been 
acquired.  This  sense  of  personal  proprietorship 
is  by  no  means  confined  to  the  sphere  of  material 
things,  but  is  witnessed  in  the  world  of  learning, 
where  the  greatest  jealousy  may  be  shown  in  regard 
to  discoveries  or  priority  in  inventions,  even  where 
these  cannot  be  the  direct  source  of  material  advan- 
tage except  in  the  sense  of  heightening  general 
prestige. 

That  the  effects  of  capitalization  are  in  general 
very  distinctly  advantageous  to  man  is  so  obvious 
a  truth  as  to  require  no  discussion,  whatever  may 
be  said  against  the  abuses  of  the  modern  capitalistic 
system.  In  fact,  it  may  be  successfully  argued  that 
the  employment  of  capital  —  that  is,  accumulated 
energy  —  is  an  essential  tool  of  human  progress, 
rendering  possible  an  economic  development  which 
permits  a  rapid  growth  of  population  under  condi- 
tions of  increasing  physical  comfort.  Still  more 
important,  but  inseparable  from  this  material  prog- 
ress, is  that  individual  leisure  which  is  the  most 
precious  fruit  of  capitalism.  The  intelligent  use  of 
this  leisure  facilitates  the  higher  kinds  of  thought 
and  so  aids  in  the  establishment  of  better  ideals  of 
life.  But  while  capital  is  an  instrument  for  the 
elevation  of  some,  it  is  the  undoing  of  others.  For, 
like  all  other  forms  of  stored  energy,  capital  may 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  107 

be  destructive  as  well  as  constructive.  In  the  hands 
of  the  ignorant  and  the  undiscipUned,  it  is  more 
likely  to  prove  injurious  than  helpful.  The  reason 
for  this  is  plain.  The  unrestrained  and  sensual 
man  is  unable  to  control  the  energy  which  can  be 
hberated  from  capital.  He  permits  it  to  be  released 
in  currents  that  run  counter  to  the  preservation  of 
that  which  is  best  in  him.  The  result  is  exactly 
comparable  to  that  which  comes  from  the  reckless 
use  of  dynamite,  with  the  single  difference  that  here 
the  destructive  consequences  of  the  uncontrolled 
liberation  of  energy  are  sudden  and  obtrusive,  in- 
stead of  gradual  and  interwoven  with  other  injiuious 
influences. 

One  of  the  most  noteworthy  features  of  elementary 
instincts  is  their  definite  tendency  to  exaggeration. 
The  instinctive  reactions  to  stimuU  are  seldom  at 
first  nicely  proportioned  to  the  stimuU  which  invite 
these  reactions,  but  are,  in  general,  excessive.  This 
tendency  obtrudes  itself  both  in  the  self-preservative 
instinct  and  in  the  instinct  of  sex.  The  exaggera- 
tions of  the  self-preservative  instinct  are  the  basis 
of  a  large  part  of  the  miseries  of  human  life.  They 
appear  before  us  in  daily  life  in  many  guises,  but 
mainly  as  the  intemperate  eagerness  to  gain  recog- 
nition and  power  in  one  form  or  another  —  an  eager- 
ness finding  expression  in  greed,  cruelty,  and  deceit. 
It  is  clearly  observable  that  in  the  struggle  for 
wealth  men  seldom  stop  at  the  points  of  gain  which 
would  satisfy  reasonable  needs.    So,  also,  in  a  phys- 


108    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ical  struggle  with  an  adversary  there  is  a  strong 
impulse  to  do  more  injury  than  is  necessary  for  mere 
self-protection  and  preservation.  The  same  tend- 
ency to  overaction  is  recognized  in  the  vulgar 
inclination  to  ''hit  a  man  when  he  is  down."  As 
might  be  expected,  these  self-preservative  exaggera- 
tions are  seen  with  especial  distinctness  among  the 
lower  animals,  where  contests  commonly  lead  to  the 
death  of  the  weaker  organism.  This  is,  of  course, 
true  of  primitive  man  and,  in  general,  of  man  en- 
gaged in  war,  but  intelligence  —  the  expression  of 
memory  and  imagination  —  powerfully  mitigates 
this  overaction.  And  it  will  continue  to  do  so, 
increasingly,  as  the  human  animal  grows  in  expe- 
rience. 

From  a  biological  standpoint,  these  overactions 
of  the  nervous  system  in  the  interest  of  self-preser- 
vation have  a  deep  interest.  For,  if  we  revert  once 
again  to  the  defensive  or  self-preservative  reactions 
of  the  cells,  we  find  in  them  a  tendency  to  overact 
on  stimulation  —  a  tendency  which  strongly  suggests 
a  basis  analogous  to  that  which  is  so  markedly  ex- 
hibited by  the  nervous  system  as  a  whole.  If,  with  a 
sharp,  thin  knife,  we  make  a  clean  cut  into  the  liver 
of  a  living  animal,  we  find  that  the  wound  is  promptly 
repaired.  But  it  is  a  notable  thing  that  the  cells 
which  react  to  repair  this  wound  are  not  merely  those 
which  have  been  injured  by  the  knife.  The  reaction 
of  repair  is  discernible  at  a  measurable  distance 
from  the  damaged  cells  in  structures  apparently  not 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  109 

directly  affected  by  the  incision.  There  is,  in  other 
words,  a  reparative  reaction  out  of  proportion  to 
the  obvious  necessities  of  the  case.  The  same  tend- 
ency is  shown  by  the  cell  reactions  which  follow  the 
injection  of  certain  bacterial  toxins  into  the  living 
body.  The  antitoxin  produced  is  by  no  means 
accurately  proportioned  to  the  immediate  and 
obvious  needs  of  the  body,  but  is  far  in  excess  of 
these. 

Without  forcing  the  analogy,  may  we  not  assume 
that  there  is  an  essential  hkeness  in  these  excessive 
cell  reactions  to  the  injuries  and  the  overactions  of 
the  nervous  system  as  a  whole,  which  are  evoked  by 
hostile  stimuli  (or  stimuh  interpreted  as  such) 
coming  through  the  pathways  of  the  special  senses  ? 
And  does  not  such  an  interpretation  somewhat  aid  us 
in  our  conception  of  the  real  self-preservative  nature 
of  many  human  acts  which  are  repellent  to  our  more 
experienced  natures?  Since  the  self -preservative 
reactions  of  the  nervous  system  are  in  the  highest 
degree  automatic  and  reflect  the  action  of  centers 
controllable  by  higher  ones,  the  individual  and  the 
race  has  before  it  the  possibility  of  bringing  these 
centers  which  voice  the  self-preservative  instincts 
under  better  and  better  control. 

These  considerations  bring  us,  in  fact,  to  the  most 
significant  of  all  human  questions  —  How  far  is  it 
possible  to  control  the  self-preservative  instincts  in 
the  interests  of  the  race  as  a  whole,  without  imperil- 
ing the   legitimate   and   essential   interests   of   the 


110    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

individual?  This  question,  which  is  obviously 
inclusive  of  the  destiny  of  human  society,  is  unde- 
niably a  biological  one.  In  a  limited  sense,  it  is  a 
problem  in  cerebral  physiology,  for  it  means  nothing 
more  nor  less  than  the  possible  degree  of  subjugation 
of  the  lower  cerebral  centers  to  the  highest  controlling 
and  inhibiting  ones.  It  is  quite  clear  that  the 
human  individual,  to  attain  to  his  noblest  expres- 
sions, must,  in  general,  remain  an  efficient  animal, 
and  that  he  must  feed,  clothe,  and  shelter  himself 
accordingly.  It  may  perhaps  also  be  successfully 
contended  that  the  luxury  of  aesthetic  influences 
cannot  be  omitted.  But  it  is  doubtful  if  the  elabo- 
rate luxuries  of  modern  civilization  are  really  essen- 
tial to  the  best  individual  preservation.  These 
questions  can  be  answered  only  as  the  result  of  long 
and  painful  human  experiences.  And  we  should 
doubtless  be  right  in  regarding  most  of  the  pitiful 
sufferings  of  humanity  as  necessary  incidents  in  the 
working  out  of  the  great  human  experiment  into 
whose  resistless  currents  we  have  been  born,  that  we 
may  contribute  something,  though  in  large  degree 
unconsciously,  toward  the  establishment  of  a  better 
equilibrium  than  now  exists,  between  the  instinc- 
tive and  controlling  forces  belonging  to  living  pro- 
toplasm. 

II 

If  one  thinks  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation  as 
it  shows  itself  at  different  periods  in  the  development 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  111 

of  human  individuals,  it  is  clear  that  there  are  dis- 
tinctive peculiarities  in  the  expression  of  this  instinct 
at  different  ages  which  exhibit  a  definite  dependence 
on  the  biological  attributes.  The  helplessness  and 
vague  consciousness  of  infancy  is  succeeded  by  the 
improved  attentiveness  and  better  motor  control  of 
childhood  with  its  seemingly  inexhaustible  supply 
of  reserve  nervous  energy.  The  rapid  growth  of 
infancy  and  childhood,  like  the  still  more  rapid 
growth  that  occurs  in  the  womb,  depends  upon  an 
extremely  abundant  supply  of  nutriment  —  in  the 
former  case  as  food,  in  the  latter,  from  the  mother's 
blood.  The  rate  of  growth,  both  of  body  and  brain, 
is  somewhat  less  during  adolescence  and  early  adult 
life,  when  the  growth  of  the  sexual  glands  intrudes 
upon  the  physiological  processes  in  such  a  manner 
as  to  stir  consciousness  with  sexual  feeling  and  thus 
heighten  a  growing  self-consciousness  which  is  liable 
to  express  itself  through  overconfidence  and  other 
manifestations  of  crass  egotism.  In  early  adult 
life,  the  elements  of  character  are  well  determined, 
yet  sufficiently  plastic  to  be  significantly  molded  by 
the  forces  of  education.  The  struggle  for  a  living 
is  intense  at  this  period,  for  the  average  man,  and 
makes  him  view  his  rivals  and  opponents  with  sus- 
picion, and  the  eagerness  to  succeed  too  often  causes 
him  to  deal  harshly  and  inconsiderately  with  those 
who  stand  in  his  way.  Physical  vigor  is  now  at  its 
height,  and  the  capacity  for  sustained  mental  and 
physical  exertion  is  notably  great.    This  early  adult 


112    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

period  is  the  time  for  performance  and  for  the 
assumption  of  necessary  physical  risks.  And  this 
is  also  the  time  for  reproduction.  In  middle  life, 
physical  vigor  begins  to  decline,  although  the  body 
tends  to  accumulate  reserves  of  energy  which  show 
themselves  in  a  disposition  to  obesity,  where  nutri- 
tion is  good.  Judgment  receives  the  benefit  of  the 
increment  due  it  from  long  experience.  Well- 
founded  self-confidence  tends  to  mitigate  aggres- 
siveness and  to  allay  suspicion  of  others,  while  the 
mellowing  process  is  still  further  accelerated  by  a 
recognition  and  acceptance  of  personal  limitations 
and  by  the  perception  that  the  margin  of  life's 
expectation  is  no  longer  a  broad  one.  The  value  of 
life  is,  in  this  period,  the  greatest  of  all,  for  it  is  the 
time  of  that  conservative  and  ripe  judgment  unmixed 
with  timorousness,  which  is  so  needed  to  correct  the 
impulsive  and  erroneous  tendencies  of  youth  and  to 
encourage  and  reenforce  its  true  ones.  The  decline 
of  sexual  passion  directs  life  processes  more  and 
more  into  somatic  and  intellectual  channels,  without 
depriving  the  individual  of  the  humanizing  experi- 
ences of  past  sexual  life  experiences.  The  period 
of  senility  is  one  of  accelerated  wasting  of  the  body 
and  relatively  slow  failure  of  the  mental  processes. 
The  reason  for  the  divergence  in  the  rate  of  decay 
of  body  and  mind  probably  lies  in  some  definite 
physical  characteristic  of  the  brain.  This  immunity 
of  the  brain  substance  to  the  effects  of  retrogressive 
metabolism  is  only  a  relative  one,  and  memory, 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  113 

ideation,  and  emotional  life  gradually  decline  despite 
of  it.  These  alterations  in  the  spiritual  sphere  are 
attributable  to  a  slow  atrophy  of  the  brain,  partic- 
ularly of  the  cellular  elements  of  the  cortex.  There 
is,  in  general,  a  decadence  in  character,  although  this 
may  be  so  slight  in  degree  as  to  escape  the  notice  of 
indulgent  companions.  Perhaps  the  main  evidence 
of  this  is  a  certain  loss  in  sympathy  and  consider- 
ateness  for  others  which  is  a  part  of  the  growing 
callousness.  The  change  is,  in  some  respects,  like 
that  which  is  witnessed  in  the  wasting  of  the  cortical 
substance  in  the  disease  known  as  general  paresis, 
though  much  slighter  in  degree. 

Ill 

If  life  be  worth  living,  it  is  logical  to  yield  to  the 
instinct  to  prolong  it,  so  long,  at  least,  as  any  satis- 
faction can  be  got  from  it  or  given  by  it.  And, 
giving  way  to  this  instinct,  people  have,  for  cen- 
turies, striven  to  increase  the  number  of  their  days, 
sometimes  by  rational  methods,  too  often  by  resort 
to  unintelligent  measures,  unfounded  either  in 
reliable  empiricism  or  in  correct  theory.  It  may 
justly  be  claimed  for  modern  medical  science  that 
it  has  gone  far  to  show  mankind  what  it  may  expect 
in  promise  of  life,  and  on  what  sources  its  expecta- 
tions must  be  based.  The  last  word  has  certainly 
not  been  uttered  on  this  subject,  but  the  possibilities 
can,  with  some  confidence,  be  defined.     It  is  true 


114    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

that  the  conditions  of  modern  life  in  civilized  coun- 
tries do  not  give  the  best  opportunity  to  test  the 
question  of  the  maximal  limits  of  life.  The  seden- 
tary habits  and  the  competitions  incident  to  such  life 
stand  in  the  way  of  anything  like  a  fair  test.  For 
this  reason,  it  would  well  repay  the  government  of 
any  great  nation,  as,  for  instance,  the  United  States, 
to  inaugurate  a  well-planned  and  extensive  experi- 
ment in  longevity  by  placing  a  group  of  selected 
persons  under  conditions  that  would  permit  the 
utmost  prolongation  of  the  machinery  of  life.  Such 
a  trial  I  regard  as  practicable  and  capable  of  yield- 
ing results  of  such  value  as  would  more  than  com- 
pensate the  expense  to  which  the  nation  would  be 
put.  The  long  trial  would  end  in  establishing  a 
standard  of  attainable  longevity  under  ideal  condi- 
tions. The  value  of  such  a  standard  would  he  in  the 
fact  that  every  individual  would  see  before  him  the 
possible  results  of  life  under  favorable  conditions, 
and  many  members  of  the  community  would  cer- 
tainly have  sufficient  intelligence  to  strive  to  secure 
these  conditions.  For  as  men  grow  more  thought- 
ful, they  prize  increasingly  the  mental  life,  and 
desire  to  prolong  that  period  of  life  in  which  the 
spiritual  experiences  are  dominant.  At  present 
the  conditions  of  ordinary  life  are  not,  in  general, 
ideally  favorable  to  the  prolongation  of  life,  but  it 
cannot  be  doubted  that  a  large  body  of  citizens, 
imited  in  the  serious  wish  to  favor  social  changes 
looking  directly  and  indirectly  to  the  lengthening 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  115 

of  life,  would  have  a  potent  influence  in  compelling 
the  important  changes  which  education  and  legisla- 
tion could  effect. 

If  science  has  not  yet  formally  given  us  the  final 
rules  for  attaining  the  utmost  longevity,  she  has 
made  clear  one  guiding  principle.  It  is  that  we 
cannot  hope  for  any  specific  recipe  for  long  life, 
but  rather  that  the  prolongation  of  our  days  is  to  be 
reached  through  the  evasion  of  that  multiplicity  of 
hurtful  influences  which,  taken  together,  impair  the 
bodily  machinery  in  sufficient  degree  to  rob  man  of 
some  portion  of  the  life  that  was  possible  to  him  in 
view  of  the  potentiality  inherent  in  his  organization. 
According  to  this  view,  the  lengthening  of  life  in 
general  must  be  attained  through  a  wide  knowledge 
of  physiological  processes,  and  through  an  intelli- 
gent application  of  this  to  the  needs  of  each  indi- 
vidual. 

It  seems  worth  while  to  consider  the  injurious 
influences  that  curtail  human  life,  since  the  control 
of  them  is  the  key,  not  merely  to  longevity,  but  also 
to  greater  efficiency  and  greater  happiness,  through 
the  prevention  of  disease.  And  in  any  discussion  of 
the  prolongation  of  life,  the  consideration  of  the 
theme  of  maintenance  of  health,  physical  and  men- 
tal, is  quite  unavoidable. 

It  has  long  been  customary  to  make  a  sharp  dis- 
tinction between  the  things  that  injure  the  body 
and  those  that  injure  the  mind,  and  this  separation 
is  still  serviceable,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 


116    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

there  is  a  large  territory  where  the  material  and  the 
psychical  overlap.  We  may  consider  first  the  in- 
jurious agents  that  affect  the  body,  and  then  those 
that  affect  the  mind. 

Damage  to  the  body  mechanism  may  arise  in 
many  ways.  It  may  occur  very  early  in  the  life  of 
the  individual, — in  fact,  previous  to  birth.  Disease 
in  father  or  mother  may  act  so  injuriously  on  the 
germ  plasm  as  to  affect  the  embryo  in  a  hurtful 
manner,  and  mortgage  its  future;  and  a  similar 
result  may  follow  from  acute  or  chronic  poisoning 
of  the  germ  plasm  of  either  parent.  These  con- 
genital influences  are  capable  of  showing  themselves 
in  many  ways,  —  in  malformations,  gross  defects, 
tumors  (including  cancer),  and  in  a  predisposition 
to  diseases  such  as  gout,  diabetes,  epilepsy,  insanity, 
and  other  nervous  disorders.  Yet  important  as  are 
these  congenital  injurious  influences,  they  are  of  far 
less  moment  than  those  harmful  effects  operating  on 
the  individual  after  birth.  The  entry  of  the  child 
into  the  world  marks  the  beginning  of  a  struggle 
against  unfriendly  forces  which  lasts  until  death. 
Not  only  must  the  new  being  face  the  many  possi- 
bihties  of  mechanical  accident,  but  it  has  lying  in 
wait  for  it  a  host  of  minute  living  enemies  in  the  form 
of  bacteria  and  other  microorganisms.  In  order 
that  these  latter  agents  of  injury  should  be  success- 
ful against  their  human  antagonists,  they  must  not 
merely  find  a  portal  of  entry  into  the  body  (as 
through  the  lungs  or  stomach,  or  eyes  or  ears,  or 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  117 

through  the  skin),  but  must  have  an  opportunity 
to  reproduce.  When  we  consider  for  the  first  time 
how  varied  are  the  injuries  that  may  be  inflicted  on 
the  body  by  bacteria,  we  wonder  how  any  human 
being  manages  to  run  the  gantlet  of  his  foes,  and 
defying  them  all,  attain  to  an  old  age.  During 
infancy  there  are  the  many  agents  of  infection  for 
the  digestive  tube,  leading  to  the  death  of  enormous 
numbers  of  children  under  five  years  of  age.  Then 
there  are  the  dangers  of  childhood  from  diphtheria, 
scarlet  fever,  and  measles,  the  causes  of  the  eruptive 
diseases  being  still  unknown.  The  period  of  ado- 
lescence and  early  adult  life  is  one  of  comparative 
freedom  from  the  inroads  of  injurious  bacteria,  for 
it  is  a  time  of  growing  powers  and  strong  defenses. 
Still,  even  at  this  time,  the  infections  of  tuberculosis 
and  of  typhoid  fever  claim  many  victims,  while  the 
entry  on  sexual  life  is  like  opening  Pandora's  box, 
in  which  he  syphilis,  gonorrhoea,  the  dangers  of 
maternity,  and  a  host  of  more  subtle  agents  of 
destruction.  In  middle  life  the  powers  of  resist- 
ance are  gradually  lessened  in  all  directions.  The 
powers  favoring  decay  are  more  and  more  successful 
in  finding  the  weak  spots  in  the  armor,  and,  penetrat- 
ing a  little  here  and  there,  make  those  quiet  or  more 
obtrusive  inroads  on  health  which  point  the  way  of 
future  decline.  For  it  is  a  fact  that  by  middle  life 
—  and  often  before  —  the  tendencies  of  the  tissues 
have  declared  themselves  and  are  clearly  visible  to 
those  who  know  how  to  look  for  them.    In  one,  it 


118    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

is  a  slight  pathological  change  in  the  muscle  of  the 
heart  which  marks  the  beginning  of  graver  altera- 
tions; in  another,  the  arteries  show  alterations 
pointing  to  a  special  liability  to  ruptures  or  obstruc- 
tions ;  in  still  another,  the  blood  begins  to  exhibit  an 
impoverishment  which  foreshadows  progressive  losses 
destined  to  end  in  a  fatal  outcome ;  or,  again,  it  is 
the  kidneys,  the  organs  of  blood  purification,  that 
show  signs  of  being  unable  to  do  their  duty.  These 
various  initial  steps  in  the  process  of  physical 
degradation  may  be  compatible  with  what  we  call 
good  health.  The  weak  places  may  be  revealed 
only  during  some  period  of  stress  —  as,  for  example, 
during  an  acute  infection.  Then  the  feeble  heart  or 
high  pressure  in  the  arteries,  or  the  striking  pallor, 
or  the  refusal  of  the  kidney  to  obey  the  calls  on  it, 
attracts  attention  to  the  presence  of  structural  defects 
that  cast  their  shadow  into  the  future.  The  damage 
thus  caused  by  acute  infections  in  the  course  of  slow 
processes  of  a  degenerative  or  involutional  character 
—  the  damage  which  thus  draws  attention  to  the 
weak  parts  of  the  machine  —  must  be,  in  one  sense, 
looked  on  in  the  light  of  an  accident.  For  these 
circumstances  which  allow  the  entry  of  the  tubercle 
bacillus,  or  the  pus-making  streptococcus,  by  some 
infective  portal,  are  quite  as  subject  to  the  element 
of  accident  as  are  the  events  leading  to  the  fracture 
of  a  rib  or  the  severance  of  an  artery. 

Having  passed  through  middle  life  without  con- 
tracting disease  sufficiently  grave  to  obviously  im- 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  119 

pair  its  workings,  the  human  machinery  is  at  last 
subjected  to  a  multipHcity  of  degenerative  tend- 
encies, which,  having  usually  had  their  quiet  incep- 
tion in  middle  life,  now  begin  to  obtrude  themselves 
by  giving  origin  to  one  or  more  disorders  of  function 
which  result  in  symptoms  of  diminished  capacity 
for  work.  The  occasional  disorder,  the  warning 
weakness,  has  given  place  to  the  permanent,  the 
chronic  enfeeblement.  The  chronic  degeneration  of 
the  heart  muscle,  the  fibrous  and  fatty  and  calcareous 
change  in  the  blood  vessels,  the  shrunken  kidney, 
denuded  in  part  of  its  degenerated  epithelial  cells, 
the  established  wasting  of  the  working  epithelial 
cells  of  the  stomach  and  intestine,  the  impoverished 
blood,  —  these  are  some  of  the  common  results  of 
the  gradual  physiological  wearing  out  of  the  hving 
tissues,  and  they  are  further  aided  and  hastened  by 
the  acute  bacterial  infections,  with  which  the  or- 
ganism has  almost  inevitably  had  to  reckon  from 
time  to  time.  It  is  not  surprising  that  these  changes 
in  the  living  protoplasm  of  the  cells  should  entail 
a  weakening  of  the  defenses  of  the  body  as  a  whole, 
and  that  in  consequence  of  this  the  period  of  senility 
should  be  one  beset  with  the  varied  dangers  of  in- 
fection. Old  age  is,  in  fact,  a  period  of  susceptibility 
to  almost  every  kind  of  bacterial  danger,  including 
gastric  and  intestinal  infections,  bronchitis,  pneu- 
monia, influenza,  tuberculosis,  and  bacterial  invasions 
of  the  kidney,  bladder,  and  genital  tract.  Death 
may,  indeed,  come  acutely  with  a  final  bacterial 


120    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

infection  from  a  mechanical  accident  to  some  part  of 
a  system  of  degenerated  blood  vessels,  as  from  rup- 
ture of  a  blood  vessel  in  the  brain  or  the  plugging 
of  a  nutrient  artery  to  the  heart.  Or  a  degenerated 
heart  muscle  may  suddenly,  without  warning  and 
without  discernible  immediate  cause,  cease  to  beat, 
or  the  kidneys,  long  overburdened,  may  quickly 
cease  their  work  and  prove  unamenable  to  any 
therapeutic  coaxing  to  renewed  activity.  Indeed, 
among  the  aged  we  may  regard  as  standard  modes 
of  death  these  sudden  vascular  accidents  of  the  brain 
and  allied  circulatory  failures  in  heart  and  kidney. 
But  in  many  instances  the  last  days  of  life  are 
attended  by  bacterial  invasions,  often  by  several 
kinds  of  bacteria,  which  are  known  to  the  pathologist 
as  terminal  infections.  These  terminal  infections, 
making  their  way  after  some  prostrating  pathologi- 
cal accident,  or  after  an  acute  and  specific  infection, 
such  as  pneumonia,  are  the  quiet  means  of  giving  the 
coup  de  grace  to  a  mechanism  no  longer  able  to  defend 
itself. 

From  this  formidable  array  of  physical  dangers,  it 
is  clear  that  to  attain  to  sixty  or  seventy  years  of 
age  is  in  itself  no  mean  achievement,  especially  if 
these  advanced  years  find  the  individual  still  free 
from  the  burdens  of  invalidism.  How  does  it  happen 
that  of  a  hundred  human  beings  that  come  into  the 
world,  only  a  small  number  reach  that  record  of 
threescore  and  ten  which  the  Bible  has  helped  to 
establish  as  a  standard  of  respectable  longevity? 


THE  INSTINCT  OF  SURVIVAL  121 

Why  do  so  many  drop  by  the  way,  or  attain  the  goal 
exhausted?  Many  factors  enter  into  the  outcome 
—  the  primitive  vigor  of  the  cells,  good  habits  of 
life,  good  fortune  in  avoiding  accidental  infections. 
The  facts  may  be  stated  a  Uttle  differently.  We 
may  say  that  the  vigor  of  the  cells,  cooperating  with 
careful  habits  of  husbanding  the  energy  of  these 
cells,  are  most  potent  influences  in  helping  the  body 
to  evade  the  dangers  of  bacterial  infection.  If  it 
were  possible  to  live  without  such  infection,  there  is 
no  doubt  as  to  the  effect  on  human  life.  Supposing, 
for  a  moment,  that  such  a  thing  were  possible,  we 
should  expect  the  cells  of  the  body  machine  to 
deteriorate  only  very  slowly,  with  the  result  that  the 
duration  of  life  would  be,  on  the  average,  far  in 
excess  of  what  it  now  is.  For  we  may  consider  that 
at  the  time  of  conception  the  possibilities,  with 
regard  to  the  future  physical  vigor  of  the  cells,  are 
expressed  in  the  protoplasm  of  the  new  being.  The 
events  of  impregnation  are,  indeed,  not  unlike  the 
winding  of  a  clock,  newly  endowed  with  the  power 
to  run  for  a  quite  definite  period.  Many  things  may 
happen  to  check  the  course  of  the  clock,  or  to  shorten 
its  time  of  action,  but  under  ideal  conditions  its 
run  cannot  exceed  the  course  made  possible  by  its 
organization.  In  exactly  the  same  way,  the  span  of 
each  human  life  has  set  to  it  a  definite  limit  in  organ- 
ization, imposed  at  the  instant  of  impregnation. 
Many  things  may  happen  to  rob  the  individual  life 
of  a  portion  of  the  hfe  possible  to  it,  but  man  knows 


122    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

of  nothing  that  can  intervene  to  inject  new  potential. 
For  the  human  clock  cannot  be  wound  anew,  not  so 
much  as  by  a  single  turn  of  the  key.  In  short,  all 
that  man  can  do  to  secure  the  full  potential  for  which 
his  organization  fits  him  is  to  protect  his  slowly 
declining  machinery  from  the  innumerable  insults 
that  threaten  it. 

The  surprising  thing  is  not  that  the  life  of  the 
human  animal  is  so  short,  but  that  it  is  so  long.  If 
we  compare  the  longevity  of  man  with  that  of 
animals,  we  find  it  to  be  superior  in  all  but  a  few 
cases,  such  as  the  elephant  and  parrot.  For  this 
relatively  long  life,  there  is  a  clear  explanation  in 
the  possession  of  an  elaborate  system  of  defenses. 
With  this  system  effectively  operative,  long  life  is 
possible ;  with  it  impaired,  there  must  come  disease 
or  death,  or  both. 


CHAPTER  V 

DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY 

The  defensive  methods  of  the  body  are  inherent 
in  the  organization  of  its  cells  and  fluids,  and  we 
cannot  expect  to  fully  understand  them  until  physi- 
ology can  conmiand  more  refined  ways  of  investi- 
gation than  at  present.  Yet  it  may  be  said  that 
slowly,  and  with  infinite  patience,  important  knowl- 
edge has  been  gained  of  the  multitudinous  ways  in 
which  the  human  organism  rids  itself  of  the  influences 
that  threaten  it.  Some  of  these  ways  have  a  simple 
mechanical  end,  as  when  coagulation  of  the  blood 
sets  in  to  stop  bleeding  from  an  artery  —  a  defense 
necessary,  not  merely  after  an  accidental  cut,  but 
after  the  exposure  of  the  blood  vessels  after  child- 
birth. This  coagulation  defense,  so  often  called  on 
and  so  fundamental,  is  in  reality  but  incompletely 
understood  despite  the  attention  that  has  been 
given  it.  A  very  different  type  of  protection  comes 
from  the  almost  universally  distributed  powers  of 
oxidation  that  prevail  in  the  body  cells.  The 
ability  of  the  organism  to  break  down  larger  into 
smaller  molecules  of  foodstuffs  simultaneously  with 
the  appropriation  of  oxygen  is  a  primitive  function, 
continuously  in  operation  for  the  purpose  of  utiliz- 

123 


124    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ing  the  nutritive  materials  of  the  body.  This  is, 
however,  not  the  only  use  of  the  oxidative  function. 
Many  substances  which  the  body  admits  to  its 
juices  have  a  dubious  quality  in  respect  to  health- 
fulness,  or  even  outspoken  poisonous  properties. 
This  is  not  inconsistent  with  their  having  food 
properties  and  with  their  being  attacked,  like  food, 
in  the  processes  of  oxidation.  A  simple  but  illustra- 
tive case  is  that  of  the  fate  of  ordinary  or  ethyl 
alcohol  in  the  body.  It  is  a  common  occurrence 
for  ethyl  alcohol  to  gain  admission  to  the  human 
organism  in  quantities  far  in  excess  of  what  may  be 
considered  a  harmless  dose.  The  oxidizing  mecha- 
nism promptly  converts  the  alcohol  into  acetic  acid, 
and  this  acid  then  takes  the  usual  course  followed 
by  acetic  acid  of  whatever  origin  (as  from  foodstuffs) ; 
that  is,  it  is  burned  to  the  end  products,  carbon 
dioxide  and  water.  Here,  then,  we  have  an  example 
of  a  defense  against  a  poison  which  consists  merely 
in  ranging  the  poison  in  line  with  the  treatment 
accorded  by  normal  cells  to  food  products  of  similar 
constitution.  But  while  this  oxidative  defense  suf- 
fices for  the  disposal  of  some  poisonous  agents,  it  is 
by  no  means  an  adequate  defense  against  others. 
For  some  poisons  the  cells  provide  a  synthetic  method 
of  detoxication;  that  is,  a  method  by  which  they 
bring  about  a  union  of  the  poison  with  a  substance 
supplied  by  the  body,  the  result  of  the  union  being  the 
formation  of  a  new  substance  much  less  injurious 
to  the  body  than  either  of  the  original  substances. 


DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY  125 

A  case  in  point  is  carbolic  acid.  This  substance  is 
always  made  in  at  least  very  small  quantities  in  the 
human  intestine,  and  on  being  absorbed  into  the 
blood  is  converted  by  union  with  sulphuric  acid  (in 
the  liver)  into  a  new  compound.  Now,  by  virtue  of 
this  habitual  synthetic  defense,  the  body  is  able  to 
dispose  of  much  larger  quantities  of  carbohc  acid 
than  it  is  ordinarily  called  on  to  get  rid  of.  In  a 
silent  way,  this  is  a  highly  useful  defense,  for  it  is  no 
rare  occurrence  for  the  intestine  to  make  carbolic 
acid  in  quantities  injurious  to  the  nervous  system 
and  other  tissues,  were  it  not  for  this  specific  protec- 
tive power  of  the  cells.  And  when  it  occasionally 
happens  that  a  person  recovers  from  a  large  poisonous 
dose  of  carbolic  acid,  this  recovery  is  to  be  placed  to 
the  credit  of  these  same  synthetic  powers  that  have 
been  called  in  to  operate  on  a  large  scale  instead  of 
in  their  habitual  more  limited  way. 

We  may  regard  the  oxidative  and  synthetic 
defenses  as  having  a  relatively  simple  chemical 
character,  if  we  compare  them  with  some  other 
protective  methods.  Various  more  or  less  complex 
biological  oxidative  procedures  may  be  combined 
with  synthetic  processes,  but,  generally  speaking, 
these  methods  are  not  adequate  to  rid  the  body  of 
its  most  dangerous  enemies,  the  pathogenic  bacteria 
and  the  poisons  which  they  make.  For  more  intri- 
cate mechanisms  are  necessary  to  cope  with  such 
invaders,  and  they  are  not  wanting.  Among  these 
there  are  none  more  important  than  the  white  blood 


126    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

cells  or  leucocytes.  Nearly  forty  years  ago  Metchni- 
koff,  the  Russian  biologist,  saw  for  the  first  time  that 
some  of  the  white  blood  cells  are  able  to  pick  up, 
surround  by  ameboid  movement,  and  finally  to 
destructively  digest  animalcules,  bacteria,  etc.  This 
remarkable  observation  has  been  variously  inter- 
preted, but  there  has  emerged  from  it  one  fact  deeply 
significant  for  the  bodily  defenses.  These  primitive, 
unspecialized  cells,  the  leucocytes,  are  able  to  sur- 
round and  destructively  digest  bacteria  which  have 
entered  the  human  blood  stream,  provided  these 
bacteria  have  first  been  given  the  coup  de  grdce  by 
other  agencies.  Fortunately  the  blood  possesses 
in  health  a  small  but  potent  supply  of  highly  organ- 
ized substances  capable  of  injuring  various  types  of 
bacterial  enemies  of  man  in  such  a  way  that  the 
leucocytes,  attached  to  the  invaded  spot,  can  finally 
dispose  of  them.  These  substances  were  called 
opsonins  by  Sir  A.  E.  Wright,  who  first  discovered 
that  the  ability  of  the  leucocytes  to  incorporate  pus- 
making  bacteria  or  tubercle  bacilli  or  typhoid  bacilli 
depends  upon  the  existence  of  these  opsonins.  It  is 
fair  to  think  of  these  opsonins  as  highly  complex 
labile  materials  which  act  as  preparative  sauces  to 
bacteria,  rendering  them  attractive  and  accessible 
to  the  finally  destructive  leucocytes.  Some  kinds 
of  immunity  or  protection  against  special  bacteria 
seem  to  depend  upon  this  combined  action  of  fluids 
and  cells;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  a  decline  in 
opsonins  causes  a  falling  off  in  the  capacity  of  the 


DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY  127 

leucocytes  to  take  up  bacteria,  and  hence  a  corre- 
sponding decline  in  immunity.  For  example,  there 
are  persons  with  persistent  boils  due  to  the  pus- 
forming  staphylococcus,  in  which  the  opsonins  for 
these  germs  are  reduced  in  activity.  The  activity 
of  these  opsonins  can,  however,  be  raised  by  suitable 
treatment,  and  simultaneously  the  boils  disappear. 

The  fact  that  the  opsonins  for  staphylococci  can 
be  raised  in  activity  by  injecting  into  the  body  of  a 
susceptible  person  very  small,  carefully  adjusted 
doses  of  the  specific  poisons  formed  by  these  germs 
is  an  illustration  of  a  principle  of  great  importance 
for  the  defenses  of  the  organism.  For  it  is  now  well 
established  that  there  are  a  variety  of  poisonous 
substances  which,  on  circulating  in  the  blood, 
stimulate  the  cells  of  the  body  to  form  substances 
which  are  able  to  antagonize  or  neutralize  any  fur- 
ther doses  of  the  original  poisons.  Such  poisons  may 
be  called  antigens,  and  the  antagonizing  substances 
to  which  they  give  the  stimulus  of  formation  may 
be  called  antibodies.  The  great  investigator  of 
immunity  Professor  Paul  Ehrlich  maintains  that 
the  antigens  are  absorbed  by  the  cells  of  the  body 
through  chemical  mechanisms  like  those  used  in  the 
absorption  of  the  foodstuffs.  Consequently  a  poison 
may  operate  as  such  because  it  presents  a  chemical 
face  like  the  chemical  face  belonging  to  nutritive 
substances  —  much  as  an  enemy  might  be  admitted 
to  a  man's  house  because  he  wears  the  mask  of  a 
friend.     Having   once   gained    admission,    that   is, 


128    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

having  made  a  suitable  chemical  connection  with 
chemical  groups  in  the  cells,  the  poison  proceeds  to 
do  damage  to  the  cells.  It  is  in  this  way  that  the 
body  structures  are  injured  in  the  course  of  disease 
by  the  action  of  bacterial  poisons  —  probably  the 
most  potent  and  widespread  way  of  damaging  the 
body.  If,  however,  the  doses  of  the  bacterial  poisons 
are  not  too  large,  there  arises  another  effect  of  a  very 
different  kind,  a  most  singular,  profoundly  conserva- 
tive effect.  This  is  nothing  less  than  the  formation 
of  protective  substances  by  the  somewhat  damaged 
cells,  substances  which,  owing  to  chemical  groups 
which  they  contain,  are  able  to  unite  with  some  of 
the  poison  that  may  reach  the  cells,  and  thus  anchor 
it  fast  and  neutralize  it.  Substances  of  this  kind  are 
called  antibodies,  and  when  such  antibodies  are  cast 
off  into  the  blood,  —  as  they  ultimately  are  when 
they  have  been  elaborated  in  excess,  —  they  receive 
the  name  of  antitoxins.  These  antitoxins,  or  free 
antibodies,  have  thus  the  power  of  intercepting 
poisons  by  combining  with  them  and  hence  screen- 
ing the  vulnerable  cells  from  the  damage  which  they 
would  suffer  if  not  so  protected.  The  number  of 
antigens,  or  substances  capable  of  exciting  the  forma- 
tion of  antibodies,  is  considerable.  The  venoms  of 
different  snakes,  the  poisons  formed  by  the  bacilli 
of  lockjaw  and  of  diphtheria,  are  among  the  best 
examples  of  antigens  from  whose  action  may  be 
derived  antitoxins  suitable  for  the  treatment  of  hu- 
man injuries  due  to  these  poisons.     And  it  should 


DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY  129 

be  noted  that  in  each  case  the  action  of  the  antigen 
is  specific.  The  antitoxin  formed  by  the  action  of 
the  diphtheria  poison  or  toxin  will  neutrahze  diph- 
theria poison,  but  not  lockjaw,  and  the  converse  is  true. 

Whether  the  antibodies  and  the  opsonins  are  sub- 
stances of  the  same  chemical  type,  or  distinct,  is 
unknown  and  need  not  concern  us  in  this  general 
discussion,  but  it  seems  likely  that  different  investi- 
gators, approaching  the  problem  of  immunity  from 
different  standpoints,  have  discovered  identical  or 
similar  substances  under  different  names. 

There  is  still  another  physical  defense  of  great 
importance  to  the  maintenance  of  life,  but  of  a  nature 
wholly  different  from  any  that  has  been  mentioned. 
This  is  the  protective  action  of  the  microorganisms 
that  occupy  the  digestive  tract.  It  is  well  known 
that  throughout  hfe,  from  a  few  hours  after  birth, 
the  human  intestine  swarms  with  bacteria.  It  is 
less  well  known  that  in  healthy  people  these  inhab- 
itant bacteria  possess  a  clearly  defined  biological 
character  which  varies  within  not  very  wide  hmits 
for  the  same  individual  and  even  for  different 
persons,  provided  the  diet  remains  reasonably  con- 
stant. There  is  not  the  least  doubt  that  in  some 
way  —  a  rather  intricate  way  —  these  normal  and 
dominant  flora  of  the  intestine  exert  a  protective 
action  on  the  entire  body.  This  protective  action 
is  complex  in  operation,  but  consists  at  least  in  part 
of  a  preemptive  effect  on  the  intestinal  domain,  by 
which  other  types  of  bacteria  are  in  large  degree 


130    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

excluded.  It  is  impossible  to  avoid  introducing 
into  the  digestive  tract  many  bacteria  which  would 
prove  undesirable  permanent  tenants,  and  these 
are  successfully  discouraged  from  gaining  a  foothold 
by  the  motile  biological  activities  of  the  more  per- 
manent and  better  adapted  bacterial  guests.  But 
to  maintain  this  supremacy,  the  normal  flora  depend 
upon  certain  conditions  of  food,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  secretions  from  the  epithelium  and  digestive 
glands,  on  the  other.  The  secretions  may  be  so 
altered  by  nervous  conditions,  or  by  actual  disease 
of  the  epithelium,  that  the  preempting  flora  can  no 
longer  maintain  themselves.  In  fact,  they  gradually 
(or  sometimes  rapidly)  suffer  displacement  to  a 
considerable  extent  by  microorganisms  capable  of 
leading  a  life  injurious  to  the  secretory  structures  of 
the  digestive  tract  and  to  the  organism  as  a  whole. 
M.  Metchnikoff  has  long  maintained  that  the  re- 
placement of  the  normal  bacterial  flora  by  ''wild" 
intrusive  races  is  a  potent  cause  of  chronic  disease, 
and  of  curtailment  of  life,  and  I  have  long  held  and 
taught  similar  views  based  on  wholly  independent 
study.  We  have  still  very  much  to  learn  regarding 
the  details  of  this  unique  partnership  between  the 
human  body  and  the  bacterial  parasites  which 
inhabit  it  with  advantage  to  host  and  to  guest,  but 
it  is  quite  safe  to  make  the  far-reaching  generaliza- 
tion that  all  influences  which  aid  in  maintaining  a 
normal  bacterial  flora  are  factors  in  the  avoidance  of 
disease  and  in  the  maintenance  of  long  life,    Strenu- 


DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY  131 

ous  but  not  highly  inteUigent  efforts  are  being  made 
to  utiUze  this  principle  by  advising  the  rather 
promiscuous  use  of  milk  containing  bacteria  which 
form  lactic  acid  abundantly,  and  are  hence  regarded 
as  discouraging  the  growth  of  life-shortening  putre- 
factive bacteria  in  the  intestine.  Although  this 
practice  has  received  the  pubUc  sanction  of  Pro- 
fessor Metchnikoff,  it  seems  destined  to  excite  false 
hopes  and  to  bring  into  merited  disrepute  a  proce- 
dure which,  more  carefully  controlled,  is  likely  to 
prove  of  real  service  in  at  least  some  affections.  To 
establish  the  value  of  milk  or  other  food  fermented 
by  any  special  bacteria  introduced  as  defenders  of 
the  normal  flora  conditions  of  the]  digestive  tract, 
very  prolonged  and  painstaking  investigations  are 
called  for,  and  it  is  regrettable  that  premature 
efforts  in  incompetent  hands  should  jeopardize  a 
promising  measure.  It  may  already  be  regarded  as 
certain  that  the  Bacillus  vulgaricus,  which  has  been 
so  widely  advertised,  is  no  specific  for  the  cure  of 
diseases  of  the  intestine  or  for  the  prolongation  of 
life.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  true  that  all  of  the 
defensive  measures  that  have  been  here  summarily 
reviewed  —  and  others  which  have  been  passed 
over  in  silence  —  give  us  important  clews  to  the  right 
procedure  for  prolonging  human  life ;  namely,  the 
maintenance  of  the  natural  defenses  of  the  body  by 
all  habits  of  life  that  are  conservative  of  these 
defenses,  and  especially  by  such  habits  as  wholly 
avoid  the  entry  of  injurious  bacteria. 


132    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  the  main  cause  of 
disturbed  health  is  the  entry  of  pathogenic  bacteria 
into  the  body,  and  it  has  been  intimated  that  the 
injury  inflicted  by  these  bacteria  arises  in  consequence 
of  poisons  formed  by  them.  It  appears  to  be  true 
that  analysis  of  the  facts  relating  to  disease  shows 
the  occurrence  of  poisoning  to  be  the  essential  cause 
of  nearly  all  departures  from  health.  In  saying 
this,  it  is  meant  to  use  the  term  "poisoning"  in  a  very 
broad  sense,  to  include  every  injurious  effect  due 
to  the  accumulation  of  chemically  acting  materials 
in  any  portion  of  the  body.  If  we  think  of  poison- 
ing in  this  sense,  we  are  at  once  brought  face  to  face 
with  the  realization  that  there  is  really  no  sharp  line 
of  demarcation  between  health  and  disease.  We  are 
accustomed  to  think  of  disease  as  something  quite 
distinct  from  health,  just  as  moralists  are  apt  to  think 
of  evil  as  something  easily  separable  from  good. 
Close  scrutiny  shows  us  that  a  clear  distinction  is  as 
little  possible  in  one  case  as  in  the  other,  in  at  least 
a  considerable  group  of  instances.  A  specific  in- 
stance will  serve  to  make  this  clear.  It  is  a  fact  that 
in  childhood  the  process  of  intestinal  digestion  is 
carried  on,  in  very  many  individuals,  for  long  periods 
at  a  time  with  singularly  little  putrefactive  decompo- 
sition, despite  the  millions  of  bacteria  present. 
The  absorption  of  certain  putrefactive  products  is 
therefore  minimal  in  these  children.  Often,  however, 
we  find  children  in  whom  these  substances  are 
formed  and  absorbed  in  moderate  amounts.     Yet 


DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY  133 

to  the  ordinary  methods  of  observation  there  is  no 
sign  of  derangement  of  health,  no  indication  of 
impaired  function,  although  we  are  well  aware  that 
these  putrefactive  substances  have  distinct  poison- 
ous properties.  In  these  cases,  we  cannot  say  that 
there  is  disease.  This  is  out  of  the  question  in  any 
ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  Yet  we  know  that  a 
further  exaggeration  of  this  process  of  poison  absorp- 
tion will  lead  surely  to  the  development  of  symptoms 
and  entry  into  the  realm  of  the  definitely  pathological. 
So  we  have  to  recognize  that  we  are  dealing  with  a 
condition  on  the  borderland  between  health  and 
disease.  There  are  very  many  examples  of  states 
which  cannot  be  strictly  called  disease,  yet  cannot  be 
classed  as  physiological.  The  study  of  such  states 
has  shown  us  clearly  that,  in  general,  we  must  regard 
disease,  not  as  a  vicious  something  wholly  foreign  to 
the  body  and  able  to  invade  it,  but  as  the  expression 
of  slight,  considerable,  or  extreme  derangements  of 
biological  processes.  The  healthy,  animal  organism 
at  any  given  instant  represents  a  combination  of  func- 
tions in  which  the  balancing  of  opposing  tendencies 
is  a  prominent  feature.  A  perfect  balancing  of  op- 
posing tendencies  makes  for  inaction  and  stability, 
while  oscillation  in  balance  within  narrow  limits  is 
characteristic  of  normal  activities.  On  the  other 
hand,  a  disturbance  of  the  balance  between  opposing 
functions,  leading  to  wide  oscillations  or  to  the 
partial  or  complete  suppression  of  one  of  two  op- 
posing tendencies  or  activities,  constitutes  disease, 


134    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

provided  this  disturbance  be  more  than  transitory  or 
suflSciently  marked  to  give  signs  or  symptoms.  An 
instructive  illustration  of  the  injurious  effects  of 
disturbed  balance  of  forces  may  be  drawn  from  the 
pathology  of  inflammation.  The  white  blood  cells 
or  leucocytes  carry  ferments  capable  of  digesting 
destructively  the  bodies  of  bacteria  that  have  been 
suitably  prepared  by  the  action  of  the  blood.  These 
ferments  are  of  such  a  nature  that  they  would  digest 
the  cells  of  the  body  itself,  were  it  not  for  the  fact 
that  these  cells  are  protected  against  this  kind  of 
injury  by  a  ferment  (called  an  antiferment)  which 
opposes  the  action  of  the  ferment  carried  by  the 
leucocytes.  In  conditions  of  local  inflammation, 
the  leucocytes  may  accumulate  in  one  spot  to  take 
up  invading  bacteria,  but  in  doing  so  they  may 
liberate  an  amount  of  ferment  that  suffices  to  over- 
come the  protective  antiferment  which  the  cells 
oppose  to  them.  The  result  of  this  excess  is  that  the 
tissue  cells,  no  longer  able  to  balance  the  action  of 
the  leucocytes,  pass  into  solution  with  the  result  that 
an  abscess  is  formed.  Another  example  of  a  want 
of  balance,  resulting  in  disease,  is  seen  in  the  singular 
condition  of  thickening  of  the  skin,  associated  with 
mental  hebetude,  which  physicians  call  my^cedema. 
This  disorder  appears  to  be  entirely  due  to  a  defec- 
tive secretion  of  certain  juices  formed  by  the  thyroid 
gland,  the  administration  of  normal  thyroid  extract 
leading  to  the  cure  of  the  disease.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  thyroid  gland  may  secrete  its  juices  in 


DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY  135 

excess,  and  this  leads  to  a  wholly  different  set  of 
manifestations.  Here,  then,  disease  is  caused  either 
by  a  deficiency  or  excess  of  a  normal  secretion  —  by 
the  agency  of  disproportion.  Another  striking  ex- 
ample of  the  same  phenomena  is  seen  in  the  way  in 
which  ulcer  of  the  stomach  arises.  The  mucous 
membrane  of  the  stomach  secretes  a  juice  capable  of 
digesting  meat  fibers,  yet  it  is  a  remarkable  thing 
that  this  juice  fails  to  digest  the  stomach  itself. 
The  living  cells  of  the  stomach  are  able  to  resist 
chemical  conditions  which  the  dead  or  dying  cells 
cannot  withstand.  The  power  of  resistance  which 
these  cells  exhibit  seems  to  depend  on  their  possess- 
ing special  ferments  capable  of  defying  the  powerful 
digestive  ferments  of  the  gastric  juice.  Under 
certain  pathological  conditions,  the  resistant  fer- 
ments are  probably  lost  in  a  portion  of  the  mucous 
membrane  of  the  stomach  which  consequently  be- 
comes helpless  to  the  attack  of  the  gastric  juice,  and 
the  formation  of  ulcer  results.  In  many  cases,  the 
lack  of  balance  in  physiological  powers  is  less  plain, 
but  still  probable.  So  in  cancer  the  invading  cells 
run  riot,  probably  because  the  habitual  restraining 
forces  of  these  cells  have  been  in  some  way  lost. 

In  general,  it  seems  correct  to  regard  the  pro- 
cesses of  disease  as  differing  from  those  of  health  in 
a  quantitative,  rather  than  a  qualitative,  way.  A 
living  cell,  Uke  a  liver  cell,  may  be  considered  as  a 
field  within  which  there  is  a  largely  independent 
play    of    distinct    processes  —  each    process    being 


136   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

carried  on  with  its  individual  rhythm.  There  is 
some  resemblance  between  such  a  field  and  a  room 
containing  a  number  of  different  machines  operating 
each  with  its  own  rhythm.  Each  of  the  machines 
can  be  accelerated  or  retarded  in  rhythm,  but  such 
change  in  rhythm  causes  no  change  in  the  quality 
of  the  function  —  the  clocks,  for  example,  develop  no 
new  function  in  consequence  of  ticking  more  rapidly 
or  more  slowly  than  they  should.  It  is  difficult  to 
believe,  at  first  sight,  that  deranged  cells  develop  no 
new  products  or  powers,  but  this  seems  to  be  the 
case.  Whether  a  cell  is  deranged  by  errors  inherent 
in  organization,  by  the  action  of  bacterial  poisons 
from  without,  or  from  the  action  of  drugs,  the  effect 
is  the  same  in  type.  There  is  retardation  or  accelera- 
tion of  function,  but  probably  no  new  development 
of  function.  When  we  find  in  the  blood  or  urine 
substances  that  seem  wholly  strange  and  abnormal, 
we  are  disposed  to  regard  them  as  something  quite 
novel.  When  we  look  more  deeply  into  the  physio- 
logical processes,  we  see  in  every  case  that  these 
pathological  substances  have  their  origin  in  accelera- 
tions or  retardations  of  normal  function.  One  ex- 
ample must  suffice.  The  urine  of  diabetic  persons 
may  contain  a  considerable  amount  of  an  abnormal 
constituent  known  to  chemists  as  a  variety  of 
oxybutyric  acid.  In  health  no  trace  of  this  acid  is 
detectable  in  the  urine.  Whence  does  it  come  in 
disease?  For  a  long  time  it  was  impossible  to 
correlate  this  unfamiliar  substance  with  any  physio- 


DEFENSES  OF  THE  BODY  137 

logical  process  or  constituent ;  it  appeared  to  many 
as  the  intrusion  of  a  wholly  inexplicable  and  unre- 
lated cause  of  disease.  Philosophically-minded  inves- 
tigators had  faith  that  in  time  the  oxybutyric  acid 
would  be  found  to  stand  in  some  clear  relation  to 
physiological  processes,  and  this  view  has  been 
amply  justified  by  recent  studies.  For  it  has  been 
shown  that  this  obscure  acid  comes  from  the  normal 
oxydative  breakdown  of  fatty  acids.  In  health 
the  acid  exists  in  mere  traces  only,  because  it  is 
burned  to  simpler  substances  as  quickly  as  it  is 
formed,  thus  serving  as  a  source  of  energy.  But  in 
diabetes,  the  power  of  complete  combustion  is  lost, 
and  a  portion  of  the  acid  formed  escapes  unburned 
into  the  urine.  What  seemed  a  new  and  unrelated 
substance  is,  in  reality,  only  a  physiological  con- 
stituent that  has  been  subjected  to  a  great  quanti- 
tative change  in  consequence  of  a  partial  breakdown 
in  the  oxidative  mechanism. 

There  has  long  been  a  disposition  to  make  a  sharp 
distinction  between  structural  and  functional 
diseases.  It  is  important  to  realize  that  disease  is, 
in  its  essence,  the  expression  of  functional  derange- 
ment, and  that  disturbances  of  function,  however 
slight  in  degree,  imply  structural  alterations  of  some 
grade,  even  though  these  be  undetectable  by  present 
methods  of  investigation.  The  standards  of  judg- 
ment in  respect  to  structural  disease  vary  from 
generation  to  generation  as  methods  grow  more 
refined  and  searching.     Even  to-day  we  have  definite 


138   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

examples  of  disordered  function  without  being  able 
to  detect  the  structural  substratum  of  this  change, 
but  this  fact  should  not  blind  us  to  the  legitimacy  of 
the  theoretical  conception  that  every  change  in 
function  (even  within  physiological  limits)  is  based 
on  alterations  in  the  structure  of  the  living  proto- 
plasm. Only  when  these  alterations  are  so  profound 
and  so  permanent  as  to  entail  a  lasting  decline  in 
function  (or  an  excess  of  function  due  to  the  sup- 
pression of  balancing  restraining  factors)  does  the 
disease  take  on  an  irreparable  character. 


CHAPTER  VI 

SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE   MENTAL  LIFE 
I 

Enough  has  been  said  of  the  nature  of  physical 
disease  and  of  its  various  causes  to  show  how  mani- 
fold are  the  influences  that  must  be  taken  into 
account  in  any  intelligent  effort  to  prolong  human 
life  under  conditions  of  maximal  bodily  efficiency. 
It  now  remains  to  consider  the  mental  influences  that 
affect  the  duration  of  life  and,  what  is  equally  im- 
portant, the  satisfaction  and  efficacy  of  the  mental 
experiences  that  enrich  consciousness.  I  have  tried 
to  give  the  reasons  for  thinking  that  the  gap  between 
mental  activity  and  physical  activity  is  not  so  wide 
as  is  generally  supposed,  and  that  consciousness 
itself  must  be  regarded  as  the  expression  of  the  most 
refined  form  of  physical  activity,  a  form  of  activity 
subserved  by  an  extremely  complex  type  of  machinery 
which  transforms  and  liberates  energy  under  condi- 
tions at  present  undefinable,  owing  to  lack  of  experi- 
mental knowledge.  I  shall  try  to  show  here  that  the 
mental  life,  or  the  content  of  consciousness,  stands  in 
the  most  intimate  relation  conceivable  to  physical 
conditions,  partly  inherent  in  the  organization  of 
the  brain,  and  partly  dependent  on  fleeting  stimuli 
brought  to  the  brain  from  without. 

139 


140    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

It  is  now  well  recognized  that  structural  defects 
or  alterations  in  the  brain  entail  corresponding  dis- 
turbances in  the  mental  life.  Among  the  most 
marked  defects  of  this  nature  are  those  due  to 
imperfect  development  of  the  nervous  system  conse- 
quent on  faults  in  the  germ  cells  or  on  disease  or 
injury  to  the  fetal,  or  infantile,  brain.  This  arrest 
in  development  gives  rise  to  the  profound  disorders 
seen  in  idiocy  and  to  the  somewhat  less  serious  ones 
of  imbecility.  Speaking  generally,  it  may  be  said 
that  there  is  a  fair  degree  of  correspondence  between 
the  defects  of  development  of  the  cerebral  rind  or 
cortex  and  the  defect  in  mental  capacity.  The 
brains  of  idiots  and  imbeciles  are  nearly  always 
below  the  normal  weight,  and  in  a  general  way  defi- 
cient brain  weight  means  mental  defect.  But  it  is 
only  where  the  brain  weights  are  very  low  that  we 
can  admit  so  gross  an  indication  as  a  sure  sign  of  the 
grade  of  functional  capacity.  It  is  a  fact  of  the  first 
importance,  that  mental  function  is  an  expression 
of  cerebral  organization  rather  than  cerebral  bulk. 
The  largest  brains  that  have  been  recorded  have  be- 
longed to  individuals  of  moderate  capacity.  Some 
great  men  have  had  brains  of  small  or  moderate  size. 
In  those  cases  where  a  brain  of  abnormally  large 
size  has  coincided  with  unusual  eminence,  as  in  the 
case  of  Webster  and  Cuvier,  it  is  probable  that  the 
individual  has  had  the  benefit  of  refined  organiza- 
tion as  well  as  of  great  mass. 

For  the  study  of  the  parallelism  between  structure 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    141 

and  function  there  is  instructive  material  in  those 
regressive  changes  which  develop  in  the  brains  of 
persons  who  have  been  previously  without  noticeable 
mental  abnormalities.  In  such  persons  the  demon- 
strable alterations  in  structure  may  be  either  locaUzed 
or  diffuse,  and  the  nature  of  the  resulting  functional 
defects  is  correspondingly  stamped.  The  diffuse  le- 
sions are  common  causes  of  disorders  of  personaUty, 
in  which  a  general  memory  defect  and  general  mental 
failure  or  dementia  are  prominent.  There  are  two 
diseases  in  which  such  disorders  of  personality  are 
very  striking  —  general  paralysis  of  the  insane  and 
senile  dementia.  Both  are  diseases  in  which  the 
cortex  or  rind  shows  a  progressive  decay.  The 
highest  faculties  of  mind  and  personality  have  their 
physical  seat  in  the  cortex  of  the  brain,  and  with  its 
slow  disintegration  there  is  a  pitiful  deterioration  of 
judgment  and  character  with  loss  of  memory, 
tremor  and  defects  in  speech  and  writing.  In  both 
these  diseases  there  is  a  fair  correspondence  between 
the  mental  loss  and  the  physical  alterations  of  the 
brain.  There  are,  in  fact,  no  better  examples  of  the 
dependence  of  personaUty  on  the  integrity  of  quite 
definite  physical  structures. 

Where  there  are  localized  defects  of  the  cerebrum 
we  get  a  different  order  of  brain  disturbances,  in 
which  there  is  no  actual  mental  disorder  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense,  unless,  indeed,  there  are  impUcated  those 
parts  which  subserve  certain  very  special  kinds  of 
mental  activity,  as,  for  example,  the  organs  of  speech 


142    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

and  speech  elaboration.  It  would  be  aside  from  the 
purpose  of  this  discussion  to  describe  the  effects  of 
disease  in  different  regions  of  the  cerebrum.  A  vast 
accumulation  of  careful  observations  has  enriched 
cerebral  pathology,  and  from  it  there  has  sprung  up  a 
science  and  an  art  of  cerebral  localization  which  has 
been  of  the  utmost  service  to  medicine.  But  many 
of  the  local  defects  of  the  brain  are  of  interest  chiefly 
for  their  effect  on  functions  other  than  mental,  such 
as  motion,  hearing,  and  vision.  All  I  desire  to  point 
out  here  is  that  each  hemisphere  of  the  brain  is 
related  mainly  to  the  opposite  side  of  the  body,  and 
that  each  hemisphere  may  be  roughly  divided  into  a 
posterior  area,  carrying  on  in  part  the  functions  of 
perceptive  discrimination,  and  an  anterior  area  (in 
front  of  the  fissure  of  Rolando),  subserving  the  final 
elaboration  of  executive  activity  or  motion.  A 
variety  of  circumscribed  defects  in  different  parts  of 
the  cerebral  cortex  lead  to  special  disorders  of  func- 
tion, as  when  a  loss  in  the  occipital  cortex  of  one  hemi- 
sphere causes  half  blindness  in  each  eye,  or  when 
the  defects  in  hearing  centers  in  the  temporal  region 
cause  an  inability  to  understand  spoken  words  and 
even  the  loss  of  ability  to  arrange  words  discrim- 
inately  in  spontaneous  thought  and  speech.  Fre- 
quently, also,  there  are  defects  of  combination  or 
elaboration  in  which  the  correlation  of  the  auditory, 
visual,  and  labile  components  of  speech  or  thought  is 
involved.  Such  an  involvement  interferes  pro- 
foundly with  the  general  powers  of  the  individual  to 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    143 

adapt  himself  to  his  surroundings.  And  one  further 
fact  of  great  interest  in  this  relation  may  be  men- 
tioned. If  disease  imphcates  the  internal  capsule 
(the  bands  of  nerve  fibers  converging  from  the  rind 
on  their  way  to  the  base  of  the  brain)  so  as  to  inter- 
rupt the  fibers  coming  from  both  frontal  lobes  of  the 
brain,  there  is  a  very  striking  loss  of  emotional 
control.  There  is  no  sadder  sight  than  a  person 
who  has  suffered  injury  to  the  cerebral  machinery  in 
these  parts,  for  although  the  lesion  may  be  small,  it 
suffices  to  occasion  a  degree  of  painful  emotion  that 
cannot  be  witnessed  without  arousing  vivid  feelings 
of  pity.  This  one  fact  is  all  we  know  definitely 
about  the  emotions  in  their  relations  to  strictly 
local  lesions. 

A  large  array  of  facts  might  be  paraded  to  empha- 
size the  dependence  of  brain  function  on  structural 
integrity,  but  this  is  unnecessary.  The  doctrine  of 
the  existence  of  definite  ''centers"  in  the  brain  is 
established  beyond  question.  It  is,  however,  only 
fair  for  us  to  admit  that  our  knowledge  of  these 
centers  is  still  imperfect  and  far  from  what  we  desire. 
We  know  that  the  cerebral  cortex  can  be  divided  into 
areas,  showing  distinct  differences  in  microscopical 
structure.  But  the  details  are  lacking  in  respect 
to  the  intimate  organization  of  these  parts.  We 
cannot  even  say  that  the  anatomical  fields  of  the 
cortex  in  their  structure  coincide  closely  with  the 
functions  revealed  by  experiment  and  by  pathology. 
The  glib  talk  about  the  depositing  of  memories  and 


144    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

the  creation  of  brain  centers  by  practice  is  a  mere 
play  of  words  —  a  postulate  from  the  facts  of  func- 
tional experience,  lacking  in  histological  demon- 
stration. It  is  what  Professor  Meyer  aptly  terms 
''metaneurology."  The  centers  grow  by  the  force 
of  growth  and  then  develop  from  use,  but  only  where 
the  conditions  are  suitable.  It  is  definitely  wrong 
to  say  that  in  word  centers  each  word  has  its  own  new 
cell,  for  a  partial  lesion  always  deprives  people  of 
the  more  unusual  words  first,  and  not  special  sets. 

So  much,  then,  for  the  disturbances  of  the  mind 
that  depend  upon  definite  and  gross  structural  altera- 
tions in  the  brain.  Obviously  such  physical  altera- 
tions cause  changes  in  the  mental  functions  which 
tend  both  to  shorten  life  and  to  destroy  efficiency  and 
happiness.  But  these  definite  lesions  of  the  brain, 
common  and  important  as  they  are  (especially  as 
the  result  of  arterial  disease),  form  only  a  small  part 
of  the  influences  that  operate  detrimentally  on  the 
human  mind.  There  is,  in  addition,  a  literally  im- 
mense group  of  nervous  and  mental  derangements, 
some  slight,  some  severe,  which  have  a  wholly  dif- 
ferent origin.  It  can  be  said,  with  the  utmost 
confidence,  that  most  mental  disorders  and  most 
nervous  derangements  are  not  due  to  alterations  in 
the  brain  that  can  be  detected  either  by  naked  eye 
inspection  or  by  the  use  of  the  microscope.  Yet  it 
is  true  that  every  mental  disorder  rests  on  a  disturb- 
ance of  cerebral  function.  Many  of  these  disorders 
are  of  so  slight  a  grade  that  there  is  no  question  about 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    145 

legal  responsibility  and  no  loss  of  ability  to  care  for 
personal  interests.  Still  even  these  slightest  grades 
of  mental  disorder  are  due  to  cerebral  disorder,  and 
their  origin  cannot  be  sought  in  any  other  direction. 
When  it  is  said  that  mental  disorders,  not  associated 
with  demonstrable  alterations  in  the  brain,  are  never- 
theless of  cerebral  origin,  it  is  not  meant  to  imply 
that  there  are  no  structural  changes  in  the  brain. 
It  is  only  intended  to  imply  that  whatever  changes 
may  exist  are  not  demonstrable  by  our  present 
methods.  And  that  this  is  no  reflection  on  the 
science  of  mental  pathology  will  be  quite  evident  to 
any  one  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  consider  the 
unparalleled  complexity  of  the  cerebral  organization 
with  its  uncountable  nervous  elements,  structurally 
and  functionally  connected  in  unthinkably  many 
ways. 

In  order  to  gain  some  insight  into  the  nature  of 
this  supremely  important  group  of  mental  disturb- 
ances, it  is  essential  to  realize  that  human  beings  are 
born  into  the  world  with  nervous  systems  very 
unequally  susceptible  to  those  disorders  of  the  brain 
for  which  one  cannot  at  present  find  a  structural 
basis.  While  some  nervous  systems  have  that  in 
their  organization  which  renders  them  extremely 
susceptible  to  mental  disorder,  there  are  others  so 
constituted  as  to  resist  successfully  within  limits 
many  of  the  most  common  influences  that  precipi- 
tate mental  disorder.  It  is  only  right  that,  at  this 
point,  we  should  freely  admit  our  complete  ignorance 


146    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

of  the  essential  differences  in  the  physical  constitu- 
tion of  brains  of  these  two  types.  We  may  specu- 
late as  to  the  nature  of  these  differences,  but  it 
cannot  be  pretended  that  we  have  facts  on  which 
to  support  any  speculations.  The  real  explanation 
may  lie  in  the  nature  of  the  protoplasm  of  the 
nervous  material  that  makes  up  the  brain,  or  it 
may  lie  in  the  arrangement  of  the  nervous  elements 
—  we  have  at  present  no  satisfactory  methods  of 
investigation  in  either  of  these  directions. 

But  the  mere  fact  that  brains  are  of  such  different 
types  in  respect  to  this  susceptibility  to  mental 
derangement  is  of  basic  importance,  because  it 
makes  clear  the  reason  why  two  individuals,  sub- 
jected to  exactly  the  same  injurious  influences, 
react  to  them  in  wholly  different  ways.  Moreover, 
these  inborn  differences  in  organization  give  us  the 
clew  to  the  proper  forestalling  of  such  disorders — 
namely,  the  elimination  of  all  injurious  stimuli.  We 
cannot  change  the  make-up  of  the  brain,  but  we  can 
change  the  environment  which  is  constantly  flood- 
ing consciousness  by  means  of  stimuli  of  all  kinds. 

One  other  fact  of  deep  significance  is  plainly  ob- 
vious. A  large  proportion  of  the  susceptible  brains 
are  found  in  persons  whose  heredity  is  not  above 
criticism.  If  we  examine  into  the  parental  characters 
of  these  susceptibles,  we  find  that  nervous  disorders, 
diseases  of  nutrition,  intoxication  from  alcohol, 
syphilis,  etc.,  are  especially  common.  If  we  examine 
into  the  parental  characters  of  those  who  are  rela- 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    147 

tively  insusceptible,  who  show  what  we  call  mental 
BtabiUty,  —  we  find,  in  general,  that  they  show 
freedom  from  nervous  and  mental  diseases,  good 
nutrition,  freedom  from  intoxication,  from  alcohol 
and  syphilis,  and  a  tendency  to  longevity.  Could 
nature  give  us  a  more  impressive  hint  as  to  what 
society  should  strive  to  do  for  the  elimination  of 
mental  disorder  ? 

Let  us  now  review  the  influences  that  are  capable 
of  disturbing  the  mental  functions,  especially  in  the 
susceptible,  but  also  in  those  who  are  relatively 
insusceptible.  It  is  quite  impossible  to  get  a  fair 
conception  of  the  nature  of  mental  and  nervous 
disease,  if  we  fail  to  scrutinize  these  influences. 

There  are  two  main  paths  by  which  the  brain  may 
be  approached,  and,  so  far  as  we  are  aware,  only 
two.  These  are  the  blood  vessels  with  their  lym- 
phatic connections  and  the  nerves  of  sensation.  A 
liberal  supply  of  blood  is  necessary  to  maintain  the 
functions  of  the  brain,  and  the  blood  vessels  which 
serve  to  transmit  this  blood  serve  also  as  the 
avenues  for  the  approach  of  injurious  substances, 
or  substances  capable  of  modifying  profoundly 
the  functions  of  the  brain.  A  physiological  example 
is  the  carbon  dioxide  of  the  blood,  an  excess  of 
which,  carried  to  the  brain,  quickly  ushers  in  loss 
of  consciousness.  Then  there  are  the  bacterial 
poisons  that  give  rise  to  fever.  These  poisons,  on 
coming  in  contact  with  a  definite  part  of  the  brain, 
cause  nervous  changes  that  result  in  a  rise  in  tempera- 


148    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ture,  and  if  this  rise  of  temperature  is  sufficiently 
great,  the  patient  passes  into  that  state  of  excite- 
ment which  we  call  delirium,  in  which  there  is  a 
marked  disorder  of  personality.  There  is  a  remark- 
able example  of  the  effect  on  consciousness  of  poisons 
locally  produced  in  the  blood  vessels  supplying  the 
cerebral  cortex.  In  the  disease  known  as  the  African 
sleeping  sickness  large  numbers  of  negroes  are 
infected  with  a  peculiar  parasite  which  finds  its  way 
in  large  numbers  into  the  vessels  of  the  cortex  and 
excites  there  a  slow  inflammation.  The  subjects  of 
this  disease  fall  into  a  deadly  sleep  from  which  they 
can  be  partially  aroused  only  with  difficulty  for  a 
few  minutes  at  a  time.  There  has  been  discovered 
a  preparation  of  arsenic  which  destroys  these  para- 
sites and  rescues  the  infected  subjects  from  the 
otherwise  fatal  sleep. 

Many  examples  might  be  cited  of  poisonous  sub- 
stances which  diffuse  from  the  blood  into  the  brain, 
and  give  rise  to  loss  of  consciousness  by  passing  into 
solution  in  certain  constituents  of  the  nervous 
tissues.  Alcohol,  ether,  chloroform,  and  a  host  of 
drugs  belong  in  the  class  of  diffusible  anaesthetics 
and  narcotics,  which  in  their  action  are  largely 
controlled  by  simple  physical  laws.  A  simple 
but  telling  experiment  can  be  made  to  show 
the  readiness  with  which  some  of  these  substances 
diffuse  into  the  nervous  system  and  out  again.  If 
a  lively  tadpole  be  placed  in  a  one  per  cent  solution 
of  ordinary  ethyl  alcohol,  he  will  gradually  become 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    149 

quiet  and  will,  in  a  few  minutes,  cease  to  move, 
although  the  heart  still  continues  to  beat.  On 
transferring  the  animal  to  plain  water,  the  alcohol 
which  has  passed  into  the  brain  by  diffusion  finds 
its  way  by  diffusion  into  the  water,  and  the  activities 
of  the  tadpole  are  soon  resumed. 

There  are  a  great  many  forms  of  physical  disease 
in  which  substances  are  formed  which  disturb  the 
functions  of  the  brain.  The  pus-forming  bacteria, 
the  bacteria  of  influenza,  and  many  others  make 
poisons  that  irritate  or  depress  certain  brain  centers. 
In  diseases  of  the  kidney,  of  the  Uver,  and  of  the 
intestine  there  are  formed  poisons  which  may  prove 
very  injurious  to  the  brain  and  induce  a  variety  of 
mental  and  nervous  derangements.  I  shall  Umit 
myself  to  one  example  of  this  sort,  the  effect  of 
chronic  intestinal  infections. 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that,  in  health,  the 
human  intestine  contains  bacteria  possessing  cer- 
tain protective  functions,  and  that  in  disease  the 
normal  bacteria  are  in  part  replaced  by  others. 
These  substituting  bacteria  form  poisons  which, 
after  absorption  from  the  intestine,  are  carried  to  the 
liver  and  rendered  harmless  there  by  means  of  special 
protective  methods.  It  may  readily  come  to  pass 
that  the  intestinal  poisons,  finding  their  way  to  the 
liver,  are  not  wholly  neutralized  there,  but  in  part 
slip  by  this  guard  and  find  an  entry,  by  the  blood, 
into  the  helpless  brain.  A  variety  of  poisonous 
effects  may  in  this  way  arise.    Our  knowledge  of  the 


150    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

individual  poisons  and  of  their  specific  effects  is 
still  meager,  owing  to  the  great  technical  difficulties 
that  surround  the  investigation  of  these  substances. 
But  of  the  truth  of  the  following  statement  there  is 
no  question.  There  are  many  conditions  of  slight  or 
considerable  mental  disturbance  in  which  irritability, 
depression,  or  confusion  of  thought  is  due  to  intoxi- 
cation of  the  brain  from  intestinal  poisons,  and  in 
these  cases  there  is  a  rapid  return  to  a  normal  state 
when  this  intoxication  ceases.  The  suffering  caused 
by  such  poisonings  is  real  and  great.  It  affects  not 
merely  the  happiness  of  the  subject  of  the  intoxica- 
tion, but,  through  its  influence  on  conduct,  his  asso- 
ciates are  also  implicated.  When  temperamental 
peculiarities  exist,  they  may  be  greatly  exaggerated 
by  a  state  of  intoxication  and  produce  distinctly 
regrettable  results.  And  one  of  the  most  unfortu- 
nate features  of  these  poisonings,  especially  when 
they  are  established,  is  that  their  true  nature  is 
commonly  not  recognized,  so  that  a  disorder  is  per- 
mitted to  persist  which  might  be  mitigated  if  met  in 
timely  fashion. 

Let  us  turn  now  to  the  hundred  avenues  of  direct 
approach  to  the  brain  by  the  nerves  that  focus  there 
from  all  parts  of  the  body.  If  we  consider,  even 
casually,  the  great  sensory  pathways  to  the  brain, 
we  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  opportunities 
that  normally  exist  for  the  most  varied  stimuli  to 
register  themselves  in  the  cerebral  hemispheres. 
The  chief  of  these  stimuli  come  through  the  skin,  the 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    151 

muscles,  and  the  internal  organs.  Existing  physio- 
logical knowledge  of  this  subject  was  materially 
deepened  by  studies  made,  not  long  ago,  by  Dr. 
Head  of  London,  who,  in  order  to  investigate  the 
sensations  from  the  skin,  caused  certain  nerves 
near  his  own  hand  to  be  cut,  and  afterwards  examined 
his  arm  and  hand  systematically.  In  this  way  he 
discovered  three  distinct  forms  of  sensibility.  One 
of  these  Head  calls  deep  sensibility,  supplied  to  the 
deeper  structures  by  nerves  running  in  company  with 
the  motor  nerves.  The  skin  itself  was  found  to 
have  two  distinct  forms  of  sensibility,  one  (the 
epicritic)  by  which  it  is  possible  to  detect  Ught 
touches  and  impressions  of  warmth  and  coolness; 
a  second  (the  protopathic)  which  is  not  evoked  by 
light  touches,  but  by  comparatively  deep  pin  pricks, 
or  by  heat  or  cold,  or  by  touching  or  pulUng  hairs. 
The  protopathic  sensibility  has  the  peculiarity  that 
an  intense  stimulation  gives  a  distinct,  though  not 
usually  localized,  pain  of  widespread  and  radiating 
character.  When  located,  it  may  not  be  at  the  point 
stimulated,  but  at  a  considerable  distance.  The 
two  systems,  the  epicritic  and  the  protopathic, 
though  largely  distinct,  show  intimate  relationships. 
There  appears,  moreover,  to  be  a  distinct  analogy 
between  the  sensibility  of  the  viscera  and  that  sub- 
served by  the  protopathic  system,  and,  indeed,  their 
nerve  supply  is  part  of  the  same  mechanism.  Head 
found  that  heat  and  cold  applied  within  the  walls  of 
the  intestines  were  referred  by  patients  not  to  the 


152    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

viscera,  but  to  the  skin,  or,  strangely  enough,  to  the 
air.  But  even  now  a  full  knowledge  of  the  visceral 
sensations  is  lacking.  Yet  we  know  enough  to  realize 
that  while  the  visceral  sensations  in  general  do  not 
rise  into  consciousness  (or  do  so  only  vaguely),  they 
are  capable  of  influencing  the  emotions  and,  at  times, 
of  arousing  very  definite  mental  states.  Finally, 
an  extremely  significant  source  of  sensory  impulses 
in  the  brain  is  the  pathways  of  the  special  sensory 
nerves,  the  olfactory,  visual,  auditory,  and  gustatory. 
When  we  realize  the  extent  of  the  sensory  mecha- 
nism and  the  variety  of  its  forms  of  sensibility,  it  is 
easy  to  understand  how  disease,  often  slight  in  its 
development,  may  so  implicate  the  sensory  mecha- 
nism as  to  send  abnormal  stimuli  to  the  brain  itself, 
yet  without  exciting  definite  pain.  Chronic  affec- 
tions of  the  sensory  system,  involving  the  special 
senses,  the  skin,  the  muscles,  or  the  viscera,  often 
serve  to  excite  excessive  reactions  in  the  sensory  re- 
cording apparatus  in  the  brain.  If  the  reactions  are 
painful,  they  are  so  obtrusive  as  to  invite  remedial 
interference.  But  very  commonly  the  stimuli  are 
not  of  a  painful  nature.  They  are  on  this  account 
none  the  less  effective  in  causing  emotional  or  mental 
disturbances.  Vague  sensations  of  discomfort,  often 
inconstant  and  not  easily  described  or  localized, 
make  their  way  into  conscious  life  and  serve  to  de- 
prive the  individual  of  comfort.  The  incubus  of 
such  stimulation  may  be,  in  time,  sufficient  to  inter- 
fere with  the  smooth  working  of  the  finer  cerebral 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    153 

mechanisms  that  habitually  hold  in  check  the  emo- 
tions, or  may  even  account  for  irritative  discharges 
of  nervous  energy  from  the  special  sensory  centers 
of  the  brain.  In  the  former  case,  there  may  arise 
emotional  outbreaks  constituting  irregular  con- 
duct ;  in  the  latter  case,  there  may  be  hallucinatory 
excitement  which,  if  uncorrected  by  the  force  of 
logical  intellectual  processes,  may  lead  to  irrational 
thought,  speech,  and  action.  And  it  is  true  that  the 
abnormal  sensory  stimulation  which  shows  itself  in 
such  mental  aberrations  may  rise  into  conscious- 
ness with  hardly  enough  definition  to  enable  the 
subject  to  take  cognizance  of  it  as  a  distinct  disturb- 
ance. An  impaired  tooth,  an  ulcer  of  the  stomach 
or  colon,  a  displaced  uterus,  an  enlarged  prostate 
gland,  may  each  furnish  sensory  stimuli  capable  of 
inducing,  directly  or  indirectly,  disorders  of  a  mental 
nature  in  persons  whose  nervous  systems  are  sensi- 
tized by  other  injurious  agencies,  or  by  inherent 
organization,  so  as  to  give  them  the  vulnerable 
quality  of  instability. 

Medical  science  has  still  much  to  acquire  in  knowl- 
edge of  the  causative  processes  that  lead  to  those 
disturbances  of  functional  balance  in  the  cerebrum 
which  constitute  nervous  and  mental  disorders, 
and  it  is  far  from  the  purpose  of  this  essay  to  attempt 
to  point  out  these  needs  in  detail  or  to  supply  them. 
Nevertheless,  no  inteUigent  discussion  is  possible  of 
the  self-preservative  instinct  which  so  largely  molds 
human  personality  without  taking  account  of  the 


154   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

rational  basis  of  deranged  nervous  activity.  We 
have  seen  that  the  cerebral  centers  may  be  influ- 
enced through  two  pathways,  the  blood  stream  and 
the  sensory  nervous  mechanism,  and  it  has  been 
pointed  out  that  a  variety  of  chemical  and  mechani- 
cal agencies  are  capable  of  operating  as  disturbing 
factors.  I  have,  however,  failed  to  emphasize  three 
considerations  which  are  essential  to  enable  us  to 
think  clearly  of  the  phenomena  of  nervous  and 
mental  derangement  in  their  bearing  on  human 
longevity  and  efficiency.  These  are,  first,  the  multi- 
plicity of  disturbing  factors  operating  by  way  of  the 
blood  stream  and  the  sensory  system;  second,  the 
nature  of  the  erroneous  life  habits  that  set  these 
disturbing  factors  in  action;  and,  third,  the  powerful 
effect  of  hypnotic  suggestion  on  the  functional  ac- 
tivities of  the  brain. 

There  is  a  tendency  to  ascribe  mental  derange- 
ments (including  in  this  term  the  slight  manifesta- 
tions which  make  borderland  cases)  to  single  causes, 
although  in  reality  the  factors  are  commonly  mul- 
tiple. Often  it  happens  that  some  one  agent  is 
conspicuous,  and  the  true  determinant  of  the  actual 
disorder,  but  careful  study  will  usually  show  that 
there  are  associated  auxiliary  elements  in  the  chain 
of  causation.  Psychical  causes,  mechanical  causes, 
and  toxic  causes  are  often  associated  in  bringing  on 
the  derangement,  although  one  or  other  of  these 
types  of  noxious  influence  may  have  been  operative 
longer  than  the  others.    Thus  a  chronic  intestinal 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    155 

infection  may  so  poison  the  nervous  system,  in  an 
insidious  way,  that  a  powerful  mental  shock,  in  itself 
insufficient  to  overcome  the  nervous  stabihty,  now 
suffices  to  break  the  equihbrium  which  has  been 
before  maintained  with  slender  margin.  Or  the  use 
of  alcoholic  drinks  may  have  paved  the  way  so  effec- 
tively that  a  relatively  mild  illness  from  typhoid 
fever  or  pneumonia  finds  the  nervous  mechanism 
uncommonly  vulnerable  to  toxins  which  would 
ordinarily  have  been  prevented  from  precipitating 
the  disorder  of  personaUty  or  the  severe  nervous 
disorder.  Instances  of  such  duplex  causation  might 
be  multiplied,  and  even  more  complex  instances  of 
causative  action  could  be  pictured.  What  has  been 
said  must  suffice  to  illustrate  the  principle  at  issue. 
That  erroneous  habits  of  life  play  an  enormous 
part  in  creating  weaknesses  is  an  incontrovertible 
commonplace,  but,  nevertheless,  one  that  is  too  little 
heeded.  Faulty  life  habits  operate  through  the  life 
channels  that  have  been  already  described,  through 
the  creation  of  foci  of  irritation  in  the  sensory  paths 
and  through  encouraging  the  access  of  poisonous 
materials  to  the  cerebral  centers.  It  is  worth  while 
to  give  a  list  of  the  more  important  faulty  life  habits 
and  then  to  give  some  examples  of  the  way  in  which 
they  lead  to  the  disturbance  of  cerebral  function. 
It  is  a  short  and  prosaic  list  made  up  of  the  following 
items :  the  improper  and  excessive  use  of  food,  in- 
cluding the  abuse  of  alcohol,  tea,  and  coffee ;  the  over- 
frequent  repetition  of  sexual  excitement ;  the  exces- 


156   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

sive  application  of  the  mind  in  intellectual  pursuits ; 
the  reception  of  an  excessive  number  of  emotional 
stimuU  through  the  special  senses  of  sight  and  hear- 
ing. To  this  list  might  be  added  the  overuse  of  the 
muscles,  but  it  is  questionable  if  this  is  often  an 
important  element  in  the  absence  of  the  other  factors. 
The  improper  and  excessive  use  of  food  is  one  of 
the  commonest  factors  in  bringing  about  physical 
disorders  which  determine  mental  and  nervous  ones. 
They  can  be  avoided  only  through  the  use  of  excep- 
tional judgment  and  self-restraint.  The  tendency 
to  eat  in  excess  is  almost  universal  at  present,  for 
people  are  guided  by  appetite  rather  than  by  their 
needs.  Every  human  machine  has  a  definite  and 
ascertainable  food  requirement,  and  to  exceed  this 
is  as  unwise  and  as  uneconomical  as  to  exceed  the 
coal  requirements  of  a  locomotive  engine.  In  time, 
educated  people  will  take  the  trouble  to  learn  their 
individual  nutritional  requirements  and  will  take 
pains  not  to  exceed  them.  The  ill  effects  of  exces- 
sive sexual  excitement  are  even  less  understood  by 
people  than  the  effects  of  improper  diet.  The  central 
fact  is  that  excessive  sexual  excitement  exhausts 
the  nervous  system.  This  causes  a  depression  of 
the  secretions  necessary  for  digestion  in  the  stomach 
and  intestine,  and  this,  in  turn,  permits  the  over- 
growth of  undesirable  bacteria  in  the  digestive  tract. 
This  overgrowth  causes  erroneous  decompositions 
in  the  food,  permanent  alterations  in  the  mucous 
membranes,  and  the  formation  and  absorption  of 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    157 

substances  capable  of  injuring  the  brain.  The 
damage  done  the  nervous  system  in  this  way  still 
further  depresses  the  digestive  secretions,  and  in 
this  manner  a  vicious  circle  is  established,  which  it 
may  be  very  difficult  to  break.  Nervous  disorders 
of  a  depressive  kind  and  blood  disorders  are  the 
commonest  results  of  such  conditions,  if  they  be  long 
continued.  The  effects  of  excessive  intellectual  ap- 
plication are  similar  to  those  of  sexual  excitement, 
for,  like  these,  they  depend  primarily  on  nervous 
exhaustion.  But  they  are,  in  general,  less  pro- 
nounced and  are,  from  the  nature  of  things,  much 
less  frequent.  Very  similar  effects,  too,  result  from 
a  life  characterized  by  appeals  to  the  emotional  side 
of  human  nature.  An  excessively  emotional  life  is 
very  common  in  the  competition  of  the  ordinary 
business  life,  very  common,  also,  in  the  struggles  for 
social  success  which  form  so  important  a  part  of  the 
modern  Hfe  of  women.  When  people  become  aware 
of  the  dangerous  nature  of  the  demands  which  are 
made  upon  them  by  these  emotional  expenditures 
and  those  incidental  to  sexual  experience,  they  will 
strive  to  keep  them  within  reasonable  limits.  And 
it  will  then  be  seen  that  in  the  endeavor  to  do 
this  there  will  be  a  nearer  approach  to  the  realiza- 
tion of  the  best  standards  of  conventional  ethical 

teaching. 

II 

The  effects  of  suggestion  on  mental  life  are  so 
powerful  and  far-reaching  that  they  cannot  safely  be 


158    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ignored  by  the  student  interested  in  the  biological 
aspects  of  human  instincts.  The  influence  of  one 
mind  on  another  has  long  been  recognized  as  a  strong 
force  for  good  or  evil,  and  in  a  thousand  ways  the 
influence  of  suggestion  is  now  recognized  in  social 
and  religious  phenomena.  In  very  different  spheres 
of  human  activity  leaders  of  men,  as  Christ,  Savo- 
narola, Napoleon,  Bismarck,  and  Pierpont  Morgan, 
have  unconsciously  employed  the  impressionability 
of  less  powerful  or  differently  constituted  minds  in 
order  to  gain  their  ends.  The  remarkable  reli- 
gious movement  initiated  in  the  United  States  by 
Mrs.  Eddy  has  its  basis  in  the  heightened  sugges- 
tibility and  impressionability  of  the  mind  that 
results  from  a  powerful  emotional  appeal  which 
stimulates  the  emotionally  controlled  faculties  of 
the  mind  at  the  expense  of  the  analytical.  It  has 
long  been  recognized  that  the  control  of  one  mind 
over  another  may  be  heightened  in  certain  directions 
by  means  of  slight  sensory  effects  obtained  in  the 
procedures  which  result  in  the  state  called  hypno- 
tism. In  hypnotism  we  have  a  state  of  artificially 
induced  mental  abstraction  —  a  sleep  in  which  con- 
sciousness is  limited  or  dissociated.  In  this  state 
there  is  a  condition  of  heightened  susceptibility  to 
suggestion.  It  is  this  increase  of  suggestibility 
which  is  the  essence  of  hypnotism,  and  not  the  state 
of  sleep,  for  this  sleep  may  be  very  slight  despite  a 
greatly  heightened  sensitiveness  to  suggestion  — 
indeed,  sleep  may  be  lacking.     In  the  hypnotic  state 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    159 

a  slight,  unemotional  suggestion  delivered  in  words 
may  act  as  powerfully  as  an  extremely  emotional 
suggestion  in  the  waking  state.  These  suggestions 
may  take  the  form  of  acts  to  be  carried  out  after 
waking  or  during  the  sleeping  state.  There  is  no 
doubt  whatever  that  persons  in  the  hypnotized  state 
can  frequently  be  influenced  to  a  line  of  conduct  at 
which  they  would  rebel  under  ordinary  conditions. 
There  are  well-authenticated  instances  where  a 
drunkard  has  been  suggested  into  a  disgust  for  his 
liquor,  and  where  his  will  has  been  reenforced  to 
cope  with  temptation.  Similar  cases  could  be  cited 
in  respect  to  multiple  and  various  vicious  habits. 
The  physiology  of  this  influence  cannot  be  analyzed 
in  precise  and  satisfactory  terms.  Apparently  what 
happens  is  that  consciousness  is  so  dissociated  that 
the  suggestions  of  the  hypnotizer  take  precedence 
over  other  influences  coming  by  way  of  the  senses, 
the  patient's  own  volition  being,  for  the  time,  in- 
hibited. Under  carefully  restricted  conditions  it 
seems  entirely  reasonable  and  moral  to  make  use 
of  hypnotic  suggestion  to  inhibit  by  the  psychical 
influence  those  injurious  impulses  which  stand  in  the 
way  of  healthful  impulses.  Children  are  commonly 
susceptible  in  a  remarkable  degree  to  the  example 
and  precept  of  their  parents,  and  this  fact  gives  a 
powerful  educational  leverage  based  on  sound  respect 
for  authority.  The  sensitiveness  and  inexperience 
of  the  growing  child  make  the  concentrated  parental 
influence  peculiarly  effective  and  impart  to  this  in- 


160    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

fluence  a  suggestional  quality  comparable  to  that 
gained  over  adults  by  the  aid  of  hypnotism.  The 
parents  have  the  enormous  advantage  over  the 
hypnotist  of  being  able  to  employ  their  influence 
frequently  and  at  short  intervals,  and  at  chosen 
times.  The  weakness  of  hypnotic  suggestion  hes  in 
the  difficulty  of  employing  it  with  such  frequency 
and  at  such  times  as  will  make  it  most  effective  in 
forcing  the  right  choice  of  conduct  on  the  subject 
when  the  better  influences  are  in  danger  of  being 
overcome  by  evil  ones.  And  again,  there  are  many 
persons  so  constituted  and  of  such  a  grade  of  intel- 
ligence, sensibility,  and  will  that  they  cannot  lend 
themselves  to  effective  suggestions  either  in  the 
waking  state  or  in  sleep.  But  as  to  the  morality 
of  attempting  such  suggestion,  we  should  feel  no 
more  doubt  than  we  do  as  to  the  morality  of  influ- 
encing a  child  by  the  methods  of  education  or  the 
appeals  of  art  or  religion  or  patriotism.  Yet  the 
cases  for  the  use  of  hypnotism  must  be  chosen  with 
the  utmost  caution  and  intelligence,  and  hypnotic 
suggestion  should  be  used  only  after  suggestion  in 
the  waking  state  has  proved  of  no  avail. 

How  far  is  it  possible  to  modify  physiological 
functions  by  means  of  hypnotic  suggestion?  This 
is  a  question  of  real  significance  for  every  one  who 
wishes  to  weigh  intelligently  the  many  claims  which 
are  made  in  a  hundred  forms  to-day  all  over  the 
western  world.  For  our  opinion  of  what  is  accom- 
plished at  Lourdes,  or  by  Christian  Science,  or  by  the 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE     161 

Emmanuel  Church  movement,  will  depend  upon 
what  we  believe  hypnotic  suggestion  to  be  capable 
of  —  assuming,  of  course,  that  these  phenomena  do 
not  require  supernatural  forces  for  their  explana- 
tion. Professor  Janet  says  that  'Hhere  is  no  physio- 
logical function  which  is  exempt  from  modification 
by  hypnotic  influence,  if  not  complete  control  by 
it."  Extreme  as  this  statement  is,  it  is  not  beyond 
the  possibility  of  being  true.  We  cannot  define 
with  exactness  the  limits  of  hypnotic  influence.  It 
does  not  greatly  help  us  to  say  that  its  action  is 
confined  to  the  modification  of  function  as  distin- 
guished from  structure,  for  the  line  between  the 
structural  and  the  functional  cannot  be  sharply 
drawn.  It  is  certain  that  the  vasomotor  system  of 
nerves  is,  in  a  measure,  under  the  influence  of  sug- 
gestion. The  proof  of  this  is  that  in  some  persons 
we  cause  a  local  reddening  of  the  skin  by  insistent 
suggestions  bearing  on  the  region  in  question.  This 
occurrence  is  of  the  same  order  as  a  blush  invoked 
in  one  person  by  the  speech  of  another ;  the  hypnotic 
vasomotor  influence  is,  in  general,  exertable  within 
a  wider  area  than  the  phenomenon  of  blushing,  and 
is  inducible  with  more  difficulty  outside  the  facial 
area.  But  if  the  blood  supply  to  a  part  is  in  a 
manner  regulatable  by  suggestion,  then  it  follows  that 
the  nutrition  of  that  part  can  be  modified  in  some 
degree,  and  modification  of  nutrition  is  inseparable 
from  the  refined  forms  of  structural  change.  I  know 
of  no  proof  that  the  trophic  nerves  —  which  control 


162    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

nutrition  in  skin  muscles  and  joints  —  are  under 
the  influence  of  hypnotic  suggestion;  on  the  other 
hand,  there  is  no  positive  evidence  that  there  is  not 
some  degree  of  control  over  the  trophic  nerves  by- 
hypnotism.  These  considerations  make  it  clear  that 
it  is  no  chimerical  thought  that  suggestion  may 
favorably  influence  a  variety  of  slight  nutritional 
disorders  where  these  are  related  causally  to  func- 
tional nervous  disorders.  That  an  advanced  struc- 
tural disease  is  modifiable  through  the  agency  of 
suggestion  of  any  kind  is  a  preposterous  and  unten- 
able doctrine,  yet  even  here  the  skeptical  medical 
materialist  is  compelled  to  make  some  admissions 
contrary  to  prevalent  professional  ideas.  Two 
examples  of  this  influence  on  definite  structiu-al 
conditions  must  suffice.  In  well-marked  chronic 
gastritis  of  a  certain  type  the  damaged  epithelial  cells 
may  be  hindered  from  repair  by  the  maintenance  of 
an  adverse  mental  state  of  depression,  and  powerful 
suggestion  may  so  alter  the  nervous  influences 
excited  through  the  vagus  nerve  that  an  important 
obstacle  to  recovery  is  removed.  Again,  there  are 
cases  of  paralysis  of  a  leg  or  arm,  from  a  structural 
lesion  in  the  brain,  in  which  hypnotic  suggestion  — 
strange  as  it  may  appear  —  is  followed  by  a  better 
use  of  the  weak  member.  There  is  the  best  reason 
to  deny  that  this  effect  is  due  to  a  direct  action  on 
the  lesion.  The  explanation  of  the  betterment  lies, 
perhaps,  in  better  blood  supply  to  slightly  damaged 
outlying  regions  of  the  lesion  of  the  brain. 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    163 

This  superficial  discussion  of  the  effects  of  hypnotic 
suggestion  may  properly  serve  to  introduce  a  brief 
consideration  of  Christian  Science  and  the  Emmanuel 
Church  methods  in  their  relation  to  suggestion. 

The  circumstance  that  so  many  thousands  of 
human  beings,  not  of  the  meanest  intelligence,  have 
turned  to  mystical  methods  of  gaining  rehef  for  their 
mental  and  physical  disorders  is  not  intelligible, 
unless  we  think  of  it  in  relation  to  the  medical  pro- 
fession. It  is  self-evident  that  if  the  recognized 
methods  of  medical  practice  could  give  satisfactory 
relief  to  this  class  of  sufferers,  they  would  not  have 
deserted  the  conventional  practitioners.  The  truth 
is  that  these  practitioners  have  distinctly  fallen 
short  in  two  ways  —  in  not  greatly  helping  their 
patients  and,  what  is  equally  serious,  in  not  taking  a 
sympathetic  and  intelligent  interest  in  troubles 
partly  imaginary  and  defiant  of  rational  analysis. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  busy  physician,  occupied 
in  combating  serious  structural  disease,  jeopardizing 
to  life,  should  sometimes  turn  a  deaf  ear  to  vague 
troubles  of  a  largely  subjective  nature.  But  he  has 
often  gone  too  far  in  ignoring  these  troubles,  and  has 
frequently  overlooked  the  actual  phj^sical  basis  of 
nervous  and  mental  disturbances.  The  reason  for 
this  is  sufficiently  plain.  The  medical  school  teach- 
ings are  confined  to  the  very  obvious,  in  clinical 
work,  in  the  deadhouse,  and  in  the  laboratory. 
There  has  been  neither  time  nor  opportunity  for  the 
study  of  the  subtleties  of  pathology,  and  it  is  here 


164   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

that  the  milder  grades  of  mental  disorders  belong. 
The  teachers  of  medicine  have  not  been  alive  to  the 
necessity  for  recognizing  the  bearings  of  disorders  of 
this  type.  Conditions  of  modern  life  have  favored 
the  multiplication  and  spread  of  these  disorders, 
and  the  medical  schools  have  not  met  the  situation 
so  arising.  The  result  is  the  extensive  movements 
to  embrace  mystical  methods  that  appeal  to  the 
dramatic  sense  and  are  not  devoid  of  individual 
sympathy.  In  many  cases  the  converts  to  these 
methods  have  turned  away  from  the  churches  to 
which  they  have  belonged,  and  from  which  they  have 
got  as  little  satisfaction  for  their  personal  needs  as 
from  their  physicians. 

Although  the  originators  of  the  Emmanuel  Church 
movement  claim  that  their  methods  are  not  in  imita- 
tion of  those  used  by  the  Christian  Scientists,  it 
would  be  difficult  for  them  to  convince  the  latter 
that  they  have  not  been  borrowers  in  many  essential 
respects.  Both  make  a  powerful  appeal  to  the 
mystical  side  of  man's  nature  and  both  make  the 
teachings  of  Jesus  a  fundamental  feature  of  their 
cult.  Consciously  or  unconsciously,  both  make  use 
of  the  influence  of  suggestive  therapeutics,  although 
in  most  instances  they  do  not  resort  to  the  use  of 
hypnotic  sleep.  Both  again  appeal  to  similar  mental 
types,  to  persons  influenced  by  emotion  or  imagina- 
tion uncorrected  by  objective  methods  and  strict 
reasoning.  The  minds  that  fall  under  the  control 
of  these  cults  are  commonly  mediocre  or  inferior, 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    165 

and  when  brilliant  or  cultivated,  seldom  possess 
creative  power  or  logical  quality.  Many  of  the 
devotees  of  Christian  Science  and  of  the  Emmanuel 
Church  movement  are  discouraged  and  exhausted  by 
disease.  They  welcome  relief  from  the  unsuccessful 
effort  to  think  clearly  about  their  troubles,  and  freely 
surrender  themselves  to  the  mental  control  of  those 
who  assert  a  narrow  and  intense  faith  in  ideas  and 
procedures  that  are  out  of  the  ordinary.  A  sharp 
analysis  by  the  subjects  of  the  methods  used  would 
be  fatal  to  even  a  very  moderate  degree  of  success, 
for  that  would  be  destructive  of  delusion  and  sugges- 
tion. It  is  for  this  reason  that  persons  who  have 
been  trained  in  the  methods  of  experimental  science, 
or  are  in  the  habit  of  tracing  the  relation  between 
cause  and.  effect,  seldom  fall  under  the  spell  of  pro- 
cedures of  this  nature.  An  impersonal  attitude  to- 
wards things  and  the  ability  to  see  the  wonders  of 
the  world  in  commonplace  unfits  man  and  woman  to 
yield  to  such  influences.  On  the  other  hand,  those 
who  wish  to  be  made  much  of  personally,  who  desire 
that  their  troubles  should  be  given  importance,  and 
who,  seeing  nothing  in  the  ordinary,  are  in  search 
of  sensations,  are  most  likely  to  prove  satisfactory 
patients. 

Despite  these  common  features,  it  would  be  unfair 
to  further  identify  the  Emmanuel  Church  movement 
with  that  of  the  Christian  Scientists.  In  the  absurd- 
ities of  their  doctrines  and  in  their  disregard  for  the 
facts  of  nature  and  of  human  history,  the  Christian 


166    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

Scientists  stand  alone  among  the  sects  that  have 
won  material  and  propagandist  successes  among 
Anglo-Saxon  people.  Consistent  in  their  belief  that 
the  control  of  the  mind  over  the  body  is  absolute, 
they  ignore  the  existence  of  well-defined  and  even 
irremediable  disease.  The  undoubted  successes 
which  they  gain  in  hysterical  affections  and  in  some 
structural  diseases  in  which  symptoms  have  been 
exaggerated  by  coexisting  nervous  disorders  are 
balanced  by  numerous  criminal  failures  with  organic 
disease  which  might  have  been  benefited  by  suitable 
scientific  medical  or  surgical  methods,  and  by  innu- 
merable relapses  in  cases  where  the  nervous  factor 
has  been  unimportant  as  compared  with  the  definite 
existing  nutritional  disease.  The  establishment  of 
so  pretentious,  ignorant,  and  dangerous  a  sect  is 
possible  only  in  a  country  in  which  biological  culture 
is  low,  and  the  people  are  ready  to  be  bamboozled 
by  every  kind  of  political,  sociological,  and  medical 
charlatanry. 

The  Emmanuel  Church  movement  represents  far 
less  dangerous  and  pretentious  tendencies,  though 
many  of  its  assumptions  are  unscientific  and  anti- 
biological.  Many  of  its  doctrines  are  vague;  it 
fails  to  recognize  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing 
between  functional  and  organic  disease;  it  invokes 
the  unproved  claims  of  telepathy  in  order  to  explain 
the  effect  of  prayer  on  the  mind  of  God,  and  it 
assumes  that  the  ''subconscious  mind"  (or  sub- 
attentive  consciousness)  "has  more  direct  control 


SELF-PRESERVATION  AND  THE  MENTAL  LIFE    167 

of  our  physical  processes  than  the  conscious"  and 
"is  purer,  more  sensitive  to  good  and  evil  than  our 
conscious  mind."  It  is,  perhaps,  not  surprising  that 
doctrines  like  these  should  be  taught  by  clergymen 
who  have  come  under  the  antirational  spell  of  influ- 
ential teachers  who,  like  Professor  William  James, 
contend  that  the  mystical  visions  and  orisons  of  a 
neurotic  of  the  St.  Theresa  type  can  safely  be 
regarded  as  authoritative  (at  least  for  the  subject 
herself)  and  as  representing  a  state  of  consciousness 
that  may  permit  a  union  with  God.  The  circum- 
stance that  the  Emmanuel  sect  refuses  to  treat 
patients  who  have  not  also  the  examination  and 
advice  of  a  physician  does  not  relieve  it  of  the  charge 
of  purchasing  its  influence  over  the  minds  and  bodies 
of  men  at  the  expense  of  that  clear  thinking,  and 
that  resolute  facing  of  unwelcome  facts,  which  is 
essential  to  the  formation  of  real  human  character. 
Doubtless,  it  is  well  that  the  physician  should  know 
more  of  the  problems  of  the  clergyman,  and  that  the 
clergyman  should  inform  himself  better  as  to  the 
aims  and  methods  of  medical  science.  But  the 
functions  of  clergyman  and  physician  cannot  be 
fused  successfully,  and  the  attempt  to  do  so  is  in 
opposition  to  the  uncheckable  tendency  to  the  dif- 
ferentiation of  professions.  The  cure  of  mental 
and  nervous  diseases  is  the  function  of  the  physician, 
and  if  he  is  but  imperfectly  prepared  for  his  task,  he 
must  learn  to  perform  it  better.  Such  therapeutic 
suggestion  as  may  be  required  should  come  from 


168    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

the  physician,  and  should  be  planned  by  him  in  its 
relation  to  the  physical  and  mental  needs  of  the 
patient.  There  are  many  patients  with  nervous 
affections  who  are  weaklings  or  degenerates,  who 
cannot  be  permanently  helped  by  any  methods, 
however  rational  or  mystical  and  God-communing. 
The  best  that  can  here  be  done  by  society  is  to  turn 
its  attention  to  prevent  the  creation  of  this  pitiable 
type  of  humanity  by  teaching  people  to  control  the 
causes  that  lead  to  it — and  this,  again,  is  the  task  of 
the  physician. 


CHAPTER  VII 

DEATH   AND   IMMORTALITY 

Only  occasionally  have  the  egotism  and  self- 
confidence  of  man  risen  to  such  heights  that  he  has 
dared  to  believe  in  an  earthly  immortality  for  him- 
self, as  in  the  case  of  Louis  XIV.  To  the  majority 
of  mankind  the  termination  of  life,  though  often 
anticipated  with  some  degree  of  dread,  appears  as 
an  entirely  normal  incident.  In  the  period  of  active 
growth  the  mind  gives  little  heed  to  the  thought  of 
death,  and  it  is  only  in  the  period  of  decline,  in  the 
second  half  of  life,  that  there  is  a  tendency  to  revert 
to  the  idea  of  death  or  to  dwell  upon  it.  Tempera- 
ment and  the  bodily  sensations  have  much  to  do 
with  the  extent  to  which  the  mind  dwells  on  the 
thought  of  dissolution.  The  robust  man,  engaged  in 
affairs,  is  apt  to  think  of  death  only  in  so  far  as  its 
possibility  necessitates  practical  measures,  but  the 
man  of  sensibility  and  ideas  early  becomes  inter- 
ested in  death  as  a  phenomenon,  and  his  interest  is 
liable  to  be  heightened  to  a  peace-disturbing  degree 
in  the  event  of  the  consciousness  of  self  being  height- 
ened through  that  form  of  ill  health  which  sensitizes 
the  nervous  system  to  all  kinds  of  unpleasant  impres- 
sions.    The  conception  of  death  which  is  formed  in 

169 


170    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

different  types  of  minds  varies  rather  widely  in 
definiteness,  in  fearfulness,  and  in  general  veri- 
similitude. It  is  unlikely  that  the  conception  is 
ever  more  than  a  rough  approximation  to  the  truth, 
even  in  the  mind  endowed  with  insight  and  education. 
For  the  mystery  of  death  is  profound,  being,  as  it  is, 
the  pendant  to  the  mystery  of  life.  An  alteration 
which  leaves  the  body  imaltered  in  form,  and  with- 
out obvious  structural  change  while  depriving  it 
and  its  constituent  parts  of  their  functions,  must 
always  excite  in  the  highest  degree  the  interest  of 
the  thoughtful  intelligence,  and  cause  it  to  seek  a 
deeper  understanding  of  its  essential  meaning.  In- 
scrutable as  biological  science  must  still  admit  the 
death  mystery  to  be,  it  can,  nevertheless,  throw  out 
some  hints  that  may  operate  as  a  corrective  for  cer- 
tain gross  errors  that  are  widely  prevalent. 

When  the  circulation  of  the  blood  ceases  within  the 
body  of  a  human  being,  he  is  pronounced  to  be  dead, 
and  the  fact  that  he  never  comes  to  life  again  under 
these  circumstances  leaves  no  room  for  us  to  doubt 
that  death  has  indeed  come.  Yet  the  situation  is 
not  so  simple  as  might  at  first  sight  appear  to  be  the 
case.  The  body  is  made  of  various  tissues,  and  the 
cessation  of  the  circulation  does  not  have  the  same 
effect  on  all.  The  nervous  system  is  peculiarly 
sensitive  to  the  withdrawal  of  its  blood  supply, 
which  is  quickly  followed  by  the  appearance  of  an 
acid  reaction  and  permanent  alterations  in  the  proto- 
plasm which  are  incompatible  with  the  restoration 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  171 

of  consciousness  —  that  most  refined  and  subtle 
of  all  bodily  functions.  Other  structures  stand  in  a 
very  different  relation  to  the  withdrawal  of  the 
blood  supply.  It  is  true  that  they  suffer  change 
from  this  deprivation  and  that  they  tend  to  undergo 
that  solution  in  their  own  juices  which  physiologists 
call  autolysis.  But,  if  within  a  short  time  after  the 
cessation  of  the  supply  of  oxygen-laden  blood  this 
supply  be  restored,  there  is  a  return  of  func- 
tional activity.  Thus  the  hver  can  be  caused,  by 
perfusion  with  blood,  to  secrete  bile,  and  the  kidney 
to  make  urine.  Dr.  Carrel  preserved  a  human 
artery  in  cold  brine  for  thirty-five  days,  and  found 
it  to  be  entirely  functional  at  the  end  of  this  time, 
and  able  to  replace  permanently  an  artery  which 
had  been  removed  from  a  dog.  And  many  years 
ago  Professor  Newell  Martin  isolated  the  heart  of 
a  dog  from  the  body  and  placed  it  under  conditions 
which  permitted  it  to  beat  regularly  for  many  hours. 
From  these  facts  it  is  clear  that  death,  in  the  ordi- 
nary sense,  does  not  mean  the  coincident  death  of 
all  parts  of  the  body,  but  is  compatible  with  the 
survival,  and  even  the  long  survival,  of  certain  kinds 
of  cells.  So  when  we  see  before  us  a  human  being 
who  has  just  drawn  his  last  breath,  we  know  that  in 
a  technical  sense  death  has  not  occurred  in  all  parts 
of  his  body,  because  in  certain  parts  there  remains, 
for  a  time,  the  possibility  of  rehabiUtation  of  function. 
This  inequality  in  the  fate  of  different  tissues 
deprived  of  their  supply  of  blood  and  oxygen  leads 


172    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

to  some  singular  paradoxes.  Dr.  Crile  cut  off  the 
head  of  a  dog,  but  so  quickly  reestablished  the 
blood  supply  in  the  trunk  and  extremities  that  these 
continued  to  live  and  functionate  for  twenty-four 
hours.  A  corresponding  restoration  of  function  in 
the  brain  by  similar  methods  has  not  been  accom- 
plished and  appears  impossible.  What  shall  we  say 
of  Dr.  Crile's  decapitated  dog?  Was  he  alive  or 
dead  after  decapitation  ?  The  answer  must  depend 
upon  our  conception  of  death.  If  we  attach  great 
weight  to  the  life  of  the  less  noble  tissues,  the  dog 
must  be  regarded  as  being  alive  despite  the  loss  of 
the  head.  On  the  other  hand,  if  we  attach  supreme 
importance  to  the  brain,  to  the  function  of  conscious- 
ness, and  to  the  all-important  part  it  plays  in  mak- 
ing personality,  we  must  answer  that  the  dog  was 
dead  despite  the  fact  that  the  body  was  alive.  This 
is  equivalent  to  conceding  that  personality  is  what 
determines  life.  The  fact  that,  in  the  experimental 
case  just  cited,  the  personality  in  question  is  only  that 
of  a  dog  does  not  alter  the  case ;  for  there  is  little 
doubt  that  the  illustration  of  the  dog  could  be  suc- 
cessfully repeated  in  the  case  of  man. 

If  we  admit  that  the  life  of  the  brain  is  the  essen- 
tial feature  of  human  life,  we  have  to  make  some 
further  admissions  based  on  the  dissociation  of  func- 
tion analogous  to  that  just  noted  in  the  case  of  the 
dog.  We  have  to  admit  that,  however  well  the  body 
may  otherwise  be  preserved,  any  changes  in  the 
brain  that  tend  to  degrade  personaUty  are  changes 


DEATH  AND  EVIMORTALITY  173 

in  the  direction  of  death.  The  subject  of  paralytic 
dementia,  for  example,  must  be  regarded  as  essen- 
tially dead,  since  those  structures  have  been  hope- 
lessly destroyed  which  subserve  inteUigence,  the 
finer  emotions,  and  the  moral  sense.  The  body  may 
otherwise  have  few  physical  defects,  and  may  hold 
in  its  cells  the  potential  that  would  suffice  to  main- 
tain it  for  years,  but  this  bodily  health  in  no  wise 
alters  the  fact  of  the  intrinsically  mortal  decadence. 
On  the  contrary,  it  serves  to  emphasize  the  antithesis 
between  body  and  soul.  But  if  we  concede  sound- 
ness to  this  position,  we  are  forced  a  step  farther. 
We  are  compelled  to  regard  every  insult  to  the  nobler 
structures  of  the  brain  as  being,  in  a  singiilarly  real 
and  intimate  sense,  a  limitation  of  life  and  a  step,  if 
only  a  small  one,  toward  actual  dissolution.  Every 
alcohoUc  debauch,  every  intoxication  that  benumbs 
the  cortical  functions  of  the  brain,  must  be  inter- 
preted in  the  light  of  the  supremacy  of  the  cerebrum 
in  the  determination  of  what  is  truly  vital. 

II 

This  dependence  of  personality  on  the  integrity 
of  the  cortical  structures  is  the  most  comdncing 
evidence  that  thought  is  a  function  of  the  brain. 
Probably  there  is  nobody  who,  knowing  the  evidence, 
would  be  disposed  to  deny  that  disease  of  the  brain 
is  the  direct  cause  of  degradation  of  thought  and 
personality,  and  that  death  of  the  brain  causes 
cessation  of  thought.    But  there  are  very  many  who 


174    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

believe  that  death  of  the  brain  does  not  put  an  end 
to  human  personality.  They  believe  that  human 
personality,  though  residing  in  the  brain,  is  not 
limited  to  its  residence  there,  and  that  after  death 
it  continues  to  have  an  existence  independent  of  the 
body.  They  believe,  in  fact,  in  human  immortahty. 
And  those  who  hold  this  belief  are  so  numerous  and 
number  so  many  persons  of  high  intelligence  and 
character  and  distinction  that  the  belief  has  been 
accepted  by  thousands  of  followers  of  less  intelli- 
gence, as  a  necessary  part  of  their  faith  in  things  and 
forces  inaccessible  to  the  senses.  If  questioned 
about  their  faith  in  human  inunortality,  the  most 
intelligent  of  these  persons  will  admit  that  there  is 
no  proof  for  their  belief  from  ordinary  rational  evi- 
dence, but,  at  the  same  time,  they  will  insist  that 
there  are  intuitions  which  are  superior  to  such  proofs 
and  that  these  intuitions  must  be  heeded.  They 
will  contend  that  immortality  is  one  of  the  great 
spiritual  needs  of  man,  that  it  is,  in  some  form,  an 
apparently  innate  belief  with  most  persons,  and  that 
such  innate  beliefs  carry  with  them  a  strong  presump- 
tion in  favor  of  their  correctness.  They  will  also 
urge  the  elevating  power  of  the  belief  in  immortality. 
And  from  these  considerations  they  reach  the  con- 
clusion that  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  if  not  proven, 
is  sufficiently  probable  to  constitute  a  legitimate 
article  of  faith.  There  are  others  who  go  somewhat 
farther.  They  are  convinced  that  it  is  possible  for 
some  minds  to  be  placed  in  communication  with  the 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  175 

spirits  of  the  dead,  and  the  apparent  manifestations 
of  these  spirits  are  regarded  by  them  as  satisfactory 
evidence  of  another  phase  of  existence  of  the  human 
soul. 

It  has  long  been  self-evident  that  the  question  of 
the  possible  preservation  of  human  personahty  after 
bodily  death  is  not  a  question  suited  to  the  methods 
and  aims  of  science.  In  order  to  estabhsh  the 
truth  of  an  alleged  experience  or  occurrence,  it  is 
necessary  that  the  phenomenon  in  question  should  be 
accessible  to  the  experience  of  more  than  one  person. 
A  person  may  have  a  sensation  which  he  describes 
as  that  of  his  heart  being  grasped  by  a  hand,  and  may 
even  become  convinced  that  this  sensation  is  evidence 
of  the  fact  that  it  is  actually  being  so  grasped.  But, 
however  strong  his  conviction  be,  he  cannot  estab- 
lish it  on  a  scientific  basis.  To  establish  his  conten- 
tion, he  would  be  compelled  to  make  a  suitable 
appeal  to  the  senses  of  one  or  more  trained  persons 
who  had  the  confidence  of  other  trained  persons. 
Repeated  appeals  of  a  definite  nature,  made  under 
strictly  controlled  conditions,  would  be  necessary  to 
convince  a  jury  of  trained  minds  of  the  probability 
of  the  contention;  and,  in  order  that  this  faith  in 
fact  should  not  be  overturned,  it  should  be  possible, 
from  time  to  time,  to  repeat  the  demonstration,  or 
one  of  a  similar  nature.  Clearly  such  conditions 
are  quite  impossible  to  exact  in  dealing  with  the 
claims  of  communication  between  this  world  and  a 
supposed  spirit  world.     It  would  be  unscientific  to 


176  BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

deny  the  possibility  of  such  coramiinication.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  has  to  be  admitted  that  when  the 
evidence  of  this  communication  has  been  purged  of 
intentional  or  unintentional  deception,  there  remains 
no  evidence  that  a  spirit  world,  capable  of  connec- 
tion with  living  human  beings,  has  any  likelihood. 
The  argument  from  the  spirit  world  in  favor  of  human 
inamortality  must,  therefore,  be  dropped  as  invalid 
for  the  present,  unless,  indeed,  we  admit  the  existence 
of  two  kinds  of  truth,  one  derived  from  rational 
thought  and  experiences,  and  a  second  variety  in 
which  a  thing  becomes  so  because  certain  people 
strongly  wish  it  to  be  so. 

But  if  science  cannot  investigate  the  supposed 
spiritual  or  supernatural  world,  it  can,  at  least,  give 
us  suggestions  as  to  the  probability  of  certain  tenets 
on  which  the  belief  in  human  immortality  is  founded. 
What  has  biological  experience  to  suggest  in  regard 
to  the  argument  derived  from  the  innate  longing  for 
immortahty  and  the  spiritual  need  for  such  a 
beUef? 

The  view  that  belief  in  immortality  is  a  spiritual 
need  has  its  origin  in  a  craving  for  a  future  life  which 
is  alleged  to  be  of  wide  distribution,  as  well  among 
primitive  as  among  relatively  civilized  people.  The 
desire  in  some  persons  takes  the  form  of  a  wish  for 
specific  rewards  for  good  conduct  in  this  world,  or 
in  compensations  for  failures  to  enjoy  material 
happiness.  Persons  of  a  more  refined  mold  desire 
a  future  life  mainly  for  the  sake  of  meeting  again 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  177 

those  they  have  loved.  For  the  sake  of  discussion, 
it  may  be  assumed  that  these  desires  are  really  very 
widespread,  although  there  is  some  evidence  that  a 
considerable  part  of  the  population  of  Christianized 
countries  is  little  or  not  at  all  concerned  with  such 
questions.  It  seems  safe  to  believe  that  there  is 
among  those  people  who  tliink  at  all  a  rough  rela- 
tionship between  the  wish  for  hfe  in  this  world  and 
life  hereafter,  in  the  sense  that  a  strong  desire  for  a 
future  life  is  commonly  associated  with  a  strong 
attachment  to  this  life.  Persons  whose  grasp  on  life 
is  weakened,  as  by  disease,  or  by  profound  disap- 
pointment, are  almost  certain  to  experience  a  con- 
comitant decline  of  interest  in  a  future  hfe.  This 
parallelism  is  significant.  It  points,  I  think,  to  the 
grounding  of  the  desire  for  a  future  Hfe  in  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation.  This  instinct  is  fundamental 
and  organic .  It  reflects  in  consciousness  the  property 
possessed  by  every  Uving  cell,  which  causes  it  to  defy 
and  to  antagonize  insults  and  injuries,  great  or 
small,  which  impinge  upon  it.  The  most  hopeless 
melanchoUc  or  hypocondriac,  inclined  to  suicidal 
thoughts  and  acts,  will  struggle  vigorously  to  avoid 
drowning  on  suddenly  falling  into  the  water.  And 
similarly  we  cHng  to  Ufe  and  dread  to  die,  though 
decrepit  and  racked  with  pain.     Maecenas  wrote : 

"  Make  me  weake  of  hand, 
Scarce  on  my  legges  to  stand, 
Shake  my  loose  teeth  with  pain, 
'Tis  wele  so  life  remain." 


178    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

It  would  be  a  singular  thing,  indeed,  if  human 
beings,  endowed  with  the  deep-rooted  instinct  to 
live,  should  be  able  to  think  of  death  without  aver- 
sion, and  without  a  strong  impulse  to  circumvent  it. 
When  it  has  once  become  obvious  to  a  man  or  woman 
or  child  that  death  is  inevitable,  the  mind  invents  a 
substitute  for  life,  and  this  substitute  is  the  hope 
or  conviction  that  there  is  a  personal  hereafter. 

In  minds  accustomed  to  weighing  evidence  with 
scientific  impartiality,  this  belief  tends  to  be  neutral- 
ized by  various  considerations  which  render  a  future 
personal  existence  improbable.  In  the  entire  range 
of  biological  phenomena  there  is  nothing  to  suggest 
that  a  continuation  of  life  for  any  species  is  probable 
or  necessary  or  desirable.  The  successive  stages  of 
development  of  pupa,  chrysalis,  and  insect  are  some- 
times cited  as  analogous  to  a  stage  of  life  in  the 
world  followed  by  a  future  life,  but  this  suggestion 
is  so  remote  that  no  thinking  person  can  be  influ- 
enced by  it,  except  perhaps  during  a  period  of 
emotional  disturbance  in  which  the  analytical  facul- 
ties are  benumbed.  The  science  of  life,  as  we  know 
it  to-day,  points  to  an  evolutionary  process  in  man 
by  which  there  is  a  slow  change  in  human  type  to- 
wards one  less  brutal,  less  selfish,  and  more  thought- 
ful of  the  interests  of  others.  It  is  diflficult  to  see 
why  inferior  types  of  life,  including  inferior  human 
types,  should  be  preserved  indefinitely  in  any  form. 
When  they  have  lived,  they  have  served  their  purpose, 
provided  that  they  have  left  successors.    An  elab- 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  179 

orate  and  wonderful  mechanism  has  been  provided 
to  secure  that  reproduction  which  secures  the  preser- 
vation of  the  race  under  conditions  of  variation  that 
favor  an  improvement  in  type.  Sentiment  suggests 
that  there  would  be  a  certain  fitness  in  the  continuity 
of  the  lives  of  a  few  great  men  of  lofty  character, 
such  as  Christ  and  Abraham  Lincoln,  but  observa- 
tion has  taught  us  that  nature's  processes  respect 
the  race  but  not  the  individual,  and  that  in  this 
most  democratic  of  all  systems  there  are  no  excep- 
tions. In  the  sex  instinct  natm-e  gives  the  individual 
a  powerful  incentive  to  perpetuate  his  or  her  per- 
sonality in  a  modified  form,  and  if  there  is  a  failure 
to  utilize  this  chance,  the  gap  is  filled  by  other  prog- 
eny of  those  who  do  utiUze  it,  and  the  possible  new 
beings  are  not  missed. 

History  teaches  also  that  while  religious  faith  has 
often  proved  a  stimulus  to  good  acts,  a  beHef  in  a 
future  personal  life  has  often  operated  as  a  salve  for 
bad  acts.  There  are  many  persons  who  have  eased 
their  consciences  by  giving  alms  calculated  to  secure 
the  safety  of  the  soul  in  another  world.  On  the 
whole,  it  is  an  open  question  whether  a  belief  in  a 
future  hfe  has  done  more  good  by  deterring  persons 
from  evil  through  fear  of  punishment,  or  more  harm 
by  giving  questionable  motives  for  conduct  in 
general.  It  seems  of  the  first  importance  for  the 
growth  of  good  morals  that  people  should  be  prepared 
to  face  in  this  world  the  consequence  of  their  acts 
here.     The  gradual  replacement  of  the  behef  in  a 


180    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

future  life  by  an  intelligent  rationalistic  conception 
of  conduct  based  on  natural  laws  is  a  change  which 
appears  to  me  inevitable  and  greatly  to  be  desired. 
In  the  present  state  of  science  it  would  be  an  error 
to  teach  that  a  future  life  is  impossible,  but  I  cannot 
see  that  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  teach  that  such  an 
idea  is  without  support  in  biological  experience. 

I  should  like  to  observe  the  effects  of  teaching 
intelligent  children,  susceptible  to  culture,  that  a 
belief  in  personal  immortality  appears  unreasonable 
and  unnecessary  in  the  light  of  science,  and  that 
such  a  belief  is  not  improbably  a  refined  and  wholly 
natural  form  of  egotism  based  on  the  insistent  obtru- 
siveness  of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation.  For  I 
am  disposed  to  believe  that  this  teaching,  which 
cuts  off  the  prospect  of  heavenly  rewards  and  hellish 
punishments,  would  lead  to  a  greater  considerateness 
in  all  human  relations  by  forcing  people  to  under- 
stand and  accept  the  natural,  instead  of  pursuing  the 
supernatural.  For  example,  it  is  a  notorious  fact 
that  parents  neglect  their  children  in  a  great  variety 
of  ways  at  the  same  time  that  they  are  greatly  pained 
at  the  thought  that  death  may  permanently  sepa- 
rate them  from  their  children.  Would  not  the 
practical  results  be  better  if,  being  taught  to  feel  that 
a  permanent  separation  is  natural  and  inevitable, 
they  should  drop  sentiment  founded  on  a  dubious 
belief,  and  seriously  give  themselves  to  the  task  of 
helping  their  offspring,  with  the  utmost  earnestness 
and,   if  necessary,   with   self-sacrificial  efforts?    I 


DEATH  AND  IMMORTALITY  181 

am  unable  to  see  that  this  negative  teaching  would 
destroy  any  chances  of  a  future  life,  supposing  that 
science  is  mistaken  in  its  indications,  as  it  is  con- 
ceivable that  it  may  be.  Conclusions  regarding  the 
probability  or  improbability  of  a  future  Hfe  should 
be  drawn  from  all  the  facts  of  science  and  human 
experience,  and  we  should  be  prepared  for  accessions 
to  scientific  knowledge  which  will  render  belief  in 
personal  immortality  more  probable,  or  perhaps  even 
less  probable,  than  it  now  appears. 


BOOK  III.    THE  SEX  INSTINCT 
CHAPTER  VIII 

SEX  AND  THE   INDIVIDUAL 

The  sex  instinct  is  the  only  human  instinct  that 
can  be  compared  with  the  instinct  of  self-preserva- 
tion in  respect  to  the  profundity  of  its  influence 
on  the  conduct  of  man.  In  its  grosser  expressions 
this  instinct  differs  from  that  of  self-preservation  in 
one  extremely  important  way,  —  that  is,  in  being 
only  occasionally  instead  of  continuously  operative. 
In  its  secondary  manifestations,  however,  it  may 
imintemiptedly  color  consciousness,  its  effects  being 
often  fused  w^th  those  that  spring  from  the  instinct 
of  seK-preservation.  It  is  essential  not  to  lose  sight 
of  this  fact  in  any  analysis  of  human  conduct  from 
the  standpoint  of  biological  laws,  for  there  is  a  strong 
tendency  among  people,  even  among  the  cultivated, 
to  ignore  the  role  of  the  sex  instinct  in  common 
life.  Sometimes  this  arises  from  true  ignorance 
or  self-deception,  sometimes  from  hypocrisy,  but 
in  every  case  it  is  fraught  with  danger  —  the 
danger  which  comes  from  dealing  in  a  superficial 
manner  with  a  powerful  force  whose  play  cannot 
be  evaded. 

182 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  183 


The  striking  fact  that  all  the  higher  animals 
multiply  through  the  union  of  cells  coming  from  two 
distinct  sexes  is  in  contrast  to  the  fact  that  the 
lowest  forms  of  life  multiply  by  much  more  direct 
and  simple  means,  such  as  budding  or  fission.  This 
contrast  in  methods  and  their  results  in  itself  suggests 
that  the  relatively  complex  sexual  means  of  repro- 
duction are,  in  some  way,  necessary  to  yield  the 
highest  types  of  animal  development,  and  such  an 
inference  is  well  borne  out  by  facts.  It  is  almost 
self-evident  that  the  fusion  of  male  and  female  cells 
serves  the  purpose  of  bringing  together  in  one 
organism  a  far  wider  range  of  hereditary  possibilities 
than  would  be  possible  with  any  simpler  system  of 
reproduction.  It  is  an  interesting  circumstance  that 
some  degenerating  species  of  animals,  such  as  bar- 
nacles, exhibit  exceptional  complexity  in  the  repro- 
ductive processes.  The  reason  for  this  complexity 
appears  to  lie  in  the  fact  that  the  animals  in  question 
have  very  many  eggs  of  extremely  small  size,  thus 
calling  for  special  and  complex  reproductive  mechan- 
isms for  their  disposal.  Instances  of  this  sort  in  no 
wise  invalidate  the  general  statement  that  the  change 
from  the  simpler  methods  of  reproduction  to  the 
more  complex  forms  of  sexual  reproduction  mark  an 
advance  essential  to  the  evolution  of  progressively 
higher  types  of  animal  mechanism. 

The  process  of  fertilization  is  one  of  rejuvenation  of 


184    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

the  egg  cell.  In  some  lower  forms  of  life  it  has 
been  found  by  experimental  biologists  that  the  egg 
may  be  stimulated  to  at  least  partial  developmental 
changes  without  action  of  the  male  sexual  cell. 
Thus  Professor  Loeb  found  that  the  egg  of  the  sea 
urchin  develops  into  a  larva  when  treated  with 
certain  inorganic  salts,  in  suitable  concentration, 
although  here  it  cannot  be  claimed  that  these  salts 
contribute  to  the  new  being  the  hereditary''  qualities 
which  would  have  been  given  by  the  male  cell.  But 
it  is  an  open  question  whether  the  human  egg  cell 
is  capable  of  being  stimulated  to  develop,  even  par- 
tially, by  means  of  any  chemical  agents  which  are 
not  laden  with  the  materials  that  carry  hereditary 
traits. 

In  man,  as  in  all  complex  animal  organisms,  there 
is  a  highly  notable  contrast  between  the  cells  in 
process  of  active  development  and  those  that  have 
matured.  An  animal  cell  consists  of  two  clearly 
separated  portions  which  have  very  different  chemi- 
cal compositions  and  biological  properties  —  the 
centrally  located  portion  known  as  the  nucleus  and 
the  surrounding  mass  of  material  which  makes  up 
a  large  and  often  preponderant  part  of  the  cell  — 
the  cell  body  or  protoplasm.  What  takes  place  in  the 
cell  body  is  largely  controlled  and  directed  by  the 
cell  nucleus,  and  damage  to  the  nucleus  compromises 
the  life  of  the  entire  cell,  whereas  the  cell  body  may 
be  injured  without  necessarily  affecting  the  integrity 
of  the  nucleus.     When  the  egg  cell  of  a  higher  animal 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  185 

is  impregnated  by  the  sperm  cell,  the  cell  undergoes 
a  remarkable  change,  in  which  the  nucleus  is  stimu- 
lated to  new  activity  and  to  the  process  of  division 
which  results  in  the  formation  of  two  cells.  This 
division  marks  the  beginning  of  the  embryo.  In  the 
cell  divisions  that  now  follow  in  rapid  succession  it  is 
the  nuclei  that  are  especially  prominent,  both  because 
the  divisions  (or  mitoses,  as  they  are  technically 
called)  have  their  starting  point  in  the  nuclei  and 
because  the  nuclear  substance  is  now  very  abundant 
as  compared  with  the  surrounding  protoplasm. 
The  dominance  of  the  nuclear  substance  during 
growth  is  a  characteristic  of  this  period  of  life. 
Gradually,  as  the  rapidity  of  cell  division  dimin- 
ishes and  growth  becomes  less,  the  cell  nucleus  comes 
to  form  a  small  part  of  the  entire  cell,  and  when 
maturity  is  reached  and  cell  division  is  rare,  it  is  the 
cell  protoplasm  that  dominates.  Hence,  it  appears 
that  this  period  of  development  is  the  period  of 
nuclear  dominance  and  activity,  while  the  period 
of  maturity  is  one  of  lesser  or  altered  nuclear  active 
and  reactive  dominance  of  the  cell  protoplasm.  The 
important  thing  to  realize  here  is  that  the  adult 
cells,  in  the  course  of  their  development  and  dififer- 
entiation,  have  largely  surrendered  their  powers  of 
reproduction.  New  powers  are,  however,  acquired 
by  these  adult  cells.  The  youthful  and  aggressive 
reproductive  functions  of  the  young  cells  have  been 
exchanged  for  the  more  stable,  more  diversified, 
and  more  elaborately  coordinated  functions  of  the 


186    BIOLOaiCAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

adult  cells.    This  is  true,  at  least,  in  the  case  of 
some  of  the  tissues. 

Thus  the  developed  human  body  consists  of 
myriads  of  cells  that  have  lost,  in  a  greater  or  less 
degree,  their  powers  of  reproduction  (though  this  is 
partially  maintained  by  some  kinds  of  cells).  There 
is  nothing  to  indicate  that  this  power  of  reproduc- 
tion can  be  restored  to  them.  This  means  that, 
after  a  time,  death  is  inevitable.  In  each  sex,  how- 
ever, a  relatively  small  number  of  cells  have  been 
set  aside  that,  by  some  wholly  inscrutable  mechanism, 
are  laden  with  hereditary  qualities  or  memories. 
The  individual  germ  cells  (at  least  in  the  case  of  the 
female),  like  the  somatic  cells  derived  from  the 
parent  germ  cells,  have  undergone  some  develop- 
ment. But  this  slight  development,  be  it  noted, 
has  not  been  attended  by  an  expenditure  of  the 
powers  of  reproduction.  These  cells,  therefore,  still 
possess  their  specific  reproductive  powers,  though 
these  lie  latent  unless  impregnation  occurs.  The 
germ  cells  of  both  sexes  hold  stores  of  energy  that 
may  be  likened  roughly  to  the  potential  forces  exerted 
by  rivers  that  have  been  dammed  back.  It  is  the 
destiny  of  the  incomparably  greater  number  of  the 
germ  cells  never  to  have  their  stored  energy  released 
in  reproduction.  Yet  for  a  relatively  few  female 
germ  cells  the  restraining  barriers  are  torn  away  by 
the  energy  contributed  to  them  by  the  heads  of  the 
male  germ  cells  or  spermatozoa.  The  junction  of 
the  male  cell  with  the  female  cell  is  like  the  acces- 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  187 

sion  of  a  new  river  to  that  which  has  been  dammed. 
The  force  hberated  by  their  conjunction  is  sufficient 
to  tear  away  all  barriers,  and  from  the  instant  of  this 
release  their  mingled  forces  rush  on,  with  gradually 
slackening  energy,  to  the  fulfillment  of  their  destiny. 
The  process  of  fructification  of  the  female  by  the 
male  cell  is  thus  in  its  essence  a  stimulus  to  develop- 
ment in  which  new  possibilities  of  developmental 
variety  are  rendered  possible  by  the  fusion  of  two 
streams  of  hereditary  qualities.  So  sexual  repro- 
duction, by  virtue  of  this  fusion  of  diverse  forces, 
makes  possible  new  and  elaborate  tj^es  of  beings 
that  are  not  imaginable  under  any  observed  system 
of  unisexual  reproduction.  In  unisexual  organisms, 
as,  for  example,  the  Paramecium,  there  is  a  sort  of 
theoretical  immortality,  for  as  each  organism  divides 
by  budding,  there  can  be  no  death  so  long  as  some 
representative  of  the  type  exists,  but  this  form  of 
inomortality  clearly  involves  a  lack  of  individuality. 
Moreover,  under  such  a  system,  only  trivial  varia- 
tions appear,  in  general,  possible,  and  hence  the 
path  of  organic  progress  is  fatally  barred.  Indeed, 
even  the  continuation  of  the  budding  process  ap- 
pears to  be  limited  to  some  hundreds  of  generations, 
unless  occasional  contacts  occur  (perhaps  foreshadow- 
ing vaguely  a  sexual  union)  with  members  of  another 
family,  in  the  course  of  which  contact-s  there  is  a 
streaming  of  protoplasm  from  one  cell  into  another. 
Indeed,  an  actual  fusion  of  cells  may  occur  in  which 
there  takes  place  an  exchange  of  nuclei.     Even  in 


188    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

these  lowly  forms,  therefore,  rejuvenation  depends 
on  the  stimulating  properties  of  cell  substances  of 
somewhat  different  strains. 

The  sex  in  which  impregnation  occurs  is,  apparently, 
by  necessity  of  economy  and  convenience,  the  sex 
on  which  devolves  the  task  of  nourishing  the 
young  organism  —  although  it  is  quite  within  the 
limits  of  possibility  that  an  embryo  may  attach 
itself  and  grow  within  suitably  prepared  male  struc- 
tures. In  nature  there  are,  in  fact,  a  few  examples 
—  though  only  among  the  somewhat  lowly  forms  — 
of  male  gallantry  in  at  least  sheltering  the  embryo. 
For  example,  the  male  pipefish  and  sea  spiders  are 
provided  with  blind  pouches  in  which  they  house 
the  eggs  during  development.  But,  in  general,  the 
duty  of  nom-ishing  the  embryo  involves  noteworthy 
personal  sacrifices  and  discomforts  on  the  part  of 
the  female  parent,  often  including,  for  the  human 
mother,  a  limitation  of  muscular  and  intellectual 
activities.  In  the  case  of  the  human  species,  more- 
over, there  must  be  reckoned  also  the  relatively  diiE- 
cult  and  painful  process  of  deUvery.  This  mechanical 
difficulty  in  childbirth  is  due  to  the  large  size  of  the 
child's  head,  which  is  merely  another  way  of  saying 
that  it  is  the  inevitable  result  of  the  long  period  of 
growth  and  protection  of  the  noblest  part  of  the 
physical  mechanism,  the  cerebrum. 

The  period  of  early  adult  life  is,  in  general,  the 
time  when  persons  are  physically  best  fitted  for  the 
responsibiUties  of  parenthood.    Yet  it  may  be  said 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  189 

confidently,  that  of  the  women  who  have  borne 
children  there  are  very  many  who  would  not  delib- 
erately have  encouraged  the  process  of  impregna- 
tion, and  would,  indeed,  have  evaded  it  but  for  the 
fact  that  this  process  is  accomphshed  through  the 
mediation  of  that  varjdng  mixture  of  sensual  excita- 
tion and  emotional  fervor  which  is  known  as  the 
sexual  appetite.  Without  this,  there  would  be 
relatively  httle  inducement  to  suffer  the  physical 
discomfort,  the  mental  perturbation,  and  the  actual 
bodily  risks  that  intervene  between  conception  and 
the  birth  of  a  child.  The  sexual  instinct,  at  times 
so  peremptory  and  so  powerfully  engrossing,  is  thus 
nature's  device  for  entrapping  the  unwary  to  per- 
petuate their  lives.  But  this  crude  statement  tells 
only  a  part  of  the  truth,  for  among  cultured  races 
sentiment  and  affection  are  so  closely  entwined  with 
the  sensual  aspect  of  the  sexual  instinct  that  the  latter 
finds  innumerable  expressions  which  give  few  or  no 
obtrusive  hints  of  their  origin  and  association. 

n 

It  is  not  surprising  that  an  instinct  so  imperious 
should  often  be  misused.  Emerson  said,  ''The 
preservation  of  the  species  was  a  point  of  such  neces- 
sity that  Nature  has  secured  it  at  all  hazards  by 
immensely  overloading  the  passions,  at  the  risk  of 
perpetual  crime  and  disorder."  The  indulgence  of 
sexual  passion  involves  a  temporary  loss  of  habitual 


190    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

restraint  which  makes  its  expression  in  the  highest 
degree  automatic  and  no  longer  under  the  control 
of  the  cerebral  centers.  The  effects  of  misuse  are 
singularly  far-reaching.  Whereas  abuses  of  the 
food  appetite  usually  work  their  evil  consequences 
on  the  body  of  the  transgressor,  sexual  abuses  tend 
to  implicate  innocent  persons  also.  The  ills  that 
arise  in  this  way  are  of  many  kinds,  and  are  both 
grossly  physical  and  more  refinedly  physical  or 
spiritual.  They  have  brought  to  mankind,  and  still 
bring  to  it,  countless  and  unpicturable  miseries, 
and  there  is  now  no  reason  to  think  that  they  will 
not  continue  to  do  so  for  centuries  to  come.  The 
disabilities,  sufferings,  and  premature  deaths  that 
follow  in  the  wake  of  venereal  diseases  are  horrors  of 
human  life  that  must,  at  times,  cause  the  stoutest 
hearts  to  falter  in  their  belief  in  human  nature. 
The  most  diabolical  and  revolting  features  of  these 
infections  is  their  incidence  in  women  and  children 
who  are  wholly  innocent.  And  even  where  self- 
indulgence  is  not  followed  by  infectious  disease, 
there  may  still  arise  disorders  of  body  and  of  mind 
that  bring  serious  losses  of  energy,  and  that  fill 
asylums  and  hospitals  with  human  wrecks. 

Such  is  the  price  that  the  human  race  pays  to  se- 
cure its  own  continuance.  Yet  this  heavy  tribute  in 
suffering  and  death  cannot  be  said  to  be  exacted  by 
nature.  These  dire  losses  are  almost  wholly  pre- 
ventable, and  it  is  even  likely  that  within  highly 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVroUAL  191 

disciplined  social  groups,  they  will  one  day  be  very 
largely  prevented.  An  intelligent  self-discipline  is 
all  that  is  necessary  to  bring  about  a  result  of  such 
incalculable  value  to  the  race.  What  human  beings 
need  more  than  all  else  is  discipline  and  control  over 
their  faculties,  and  whatever  makes  for  this  makes 
for  civilization.  But  in  the  case  of  the  passion  whose 
gratification  is  an  automatic  and  frenzied  act,  the 
reassertion  of  cortical  control  is  very  difficult  when 
this  control  has  become  enfeebled  or  lost.  And 
this  is  particularly  true  of  imaginative  and  highly 
sensuous  temperaments.  The  cortical  control  essen- 
tial to  avoid  evil  consequences  does  not  come  neces- 
sarily nor  merely  from  knowledge.  It  is  notorious 
that  a  conventional  and  superficial  famiharity  with 
physiology  in  itself  brings  no  accession  of  sexual 
morality,  but  it  is  on  the  contrary  liable  to  inspire 
contempt  for  the  instinctive  self-restraint  often 
practiced  by  the  uninformed.  What  is  especially 
needed  is  the  will  to  practice  sufficient  self-restraint 
to  avoid  incurring  the  risk  of  bringing  evil  conse- 
quences to  others,  and  this  obviously  depends  mainly 
upon  good  feeling  and  a  realization  that  the  sex  in- 
stinct should  serve  a  far  more  serious  purpose  than 
mere  sensual  gratification. 

There  is  one  road  by  which,  more  surely  than  by 
any  other,  human  beings  can  attain  to  a  higher  level 
of  sexual  morality.  This  is  through  a  betterment 
in  the  attitude  of  women  toward  the  ideals  —  or 
lack   of  ideals  —  harbored   by  men.     As   the   sex 


192    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

instinct  is  more  assertive  in  men  than  in  women,  it 
has  become  an  accepted  social  usage  that  the  male 
should  make  the  proposition  of  marriage  —  a  usage 
springing  wholly  from  biological  conditions.  This 
custom  makes  it  possible  for  women  to  exact  certain 
conditions  for  the  acceptance  of  their  husbands, 
and  of  such  conditions  there  can  be  none  more  impor- 
tant than  a  clean  sexual  record.  This  is  a  matter 
in  which  parents  could  play  a  decisive  and  extremely 
helpful  part,  if  they  possessed  the  necessary  courage 
and  foresight  to  guard  their  daughters  against  the 
pitiable  consequences  of  marriage  to  men  whose  past 
histories  make  them  dangerous  either  as  carriers  of 
disease  or  as  incontinent  and  loose-lived  mates. 
That  parents  who  are  otherwise  conscientious  in  the 
discharge  of  their  obligations  toward  their  children 
should  so  frequently  fail  in  respect  to  a  duty  so  far- 
reaching  and  critical  as  this  can  be  explained  only 
on  the  ground  that  they  shrink  from  making  an  un- 
conventional inquiry  or  are  reprehensibly  ignorant 
of  the  possibilities.  The  discovery  of  a  sexual  flaw 
in  the  history  of  a  suitor  would  not  necessarily 
mean  his  rejection,  but  it  would  mean  that  the 
risks  attending  marriage  had  been  weighed,  and 
that  subsequent  physical  miseries  and  other  disap- 
pointments would  not  befall  as  surprises,  as  is  now 
too  often  the  case.  There  are  not  lacking  indica- 
tions that  women  will,  in  the  future,  avail  them- 
selves of  their  undoubted  power  to  set  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  sexual  morality  for  men  than  exists  at  present, 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  193 

and  it  is  only  reasonable  to  think  that  this  improve- 
ment will  come  mainly  as  a  special  phase  of  that  more 
general  amelioration  of  the  relation  between  the 
sexes  which  is  an  outcome  of  the  growing  wish  of 
people  to  make  better  and  better  use  of  their  facul- 
ties. 

Ill 

The  attitude  of  the  male  and  the  female  toward  the 
sexual  impulse  is,  in  general,  dissimilar  in  one  impor- 
tant respect.  The  male  seeks  sexual  gratification 
without  giving  much  thought  as  to  progeny,  certainly 
with  no  strong  desire,  as  a  rule,  to  have  children.  In 
women  there  is  often  a  distinct  wish  to  have  children, 
which  paves  the  way  for  the  multitudinous  personal 
sacrifices  which  maternity  imposes.  But  there  are 
also  women  who  care  little  to  have  children,  or  to 
whom  the  idea  of  maternity  is  repellent.  If  such 
women  are  sensual  and  uncontrolled  by  elevating 
influences  of  education  or  religious  precept,  they 
constitute  material  from  which  the  prostitute  class 
may  be  recruited.  What  is  called  respectable  society 
holds  thousands  of  women  who  have  the  sensual, 
pleasure-loving  temperament  of  the  prostitute,  but 
who  never  become  professionals  because  they  are 
protected  by  fortune  from  the  necessity  of  making 
a  living.  They  marry  and  have  children,  but  this 
does  not  radically  alter  their  natures,  and  they  show, 
during  their  entire  hves,  so  strong  a  tendency  to 
self-gratification  in  one  way  or  another  that  they 


194    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

have  no  hesitancy  in  neglecting  the  interests  of  their 
children  wherever  these  conflict  with  their  own 
pleasure. 

The  life  of  a  prostitute  almost  inevitably  leads  to 
a  progressive  spiritual  and  bodily  dechne,  which  is 
significant  to  the  community  wherever  the  number 
of  such  persons  is  large.  The  causes  of  this  decline 
are  not  elusive  but  self-evident.  Where  physical 
degeneration  is  not  induced  by  specific  infectious 
diseases,  it  almost  certainly  is  caused  by  the  nervous 
exhaustion  that  attends  the  excesses  that  are  part 
of  the  life  of  prostitution.  For  the  spiritual  degen- 
eration there  is  a  twofold  reason.  Prostitution  in- 
volves the  systematic  perversion  of  a  powerful 
natural  instinct,  and  thus  sets  itself  in  direct  an- 
tagonism to  the  operation  of  the  forces  of  nature. 
Whereas  the  true  object  of  sexual  relations  is  to  pro- 
duce children,  the  object  of  the  prostitute  is  to  use 
every  means  to  circumvent  this  legitimate  end.  The 
final  result  of  this  persistence  in  an  unnatural  course 
is  a  depressive  consciousness  of  failure,  which  even 
those  of  mediocre  intelligence  cannot  escape.  In  this 
respect  the  degenerating  effects  of  prostitutional 
misuse  of  the  sex  instinct  are  the  same  as  those  of 
misuse  unconnected  with  prostitution.  But  a  sec- 
ond powerful  element  enters  into  the  spiritual 
breakdown  of  the  prostitute.  This  is  the  acceptance 
of  money  (or  some  material  equivalent)  as  a  reward 
or  compensation  for  misuse  of  a  fundamental  in- 
stinct.   When  dictated  by  impulse,  the  misuse  of 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  195 

the  sex  instinct,  however  regrettable,  is  something 
that  may  at  any  time  be  checked  by  growing  intel- 
Ugence  and  improved  self-control.  The  necessity 
for  the  acceptance  of  money  cuts  off  this  possibility 
of  restraint  and  operates  as  a  fixative  for  a  danger- 
ous habit  of  life.  It  also  has  the  effect  of  rendering 
the  expenditures  of  sex  energy  a  deliberate  act  rather 
than  one  of  impulse,  which  is  only  pardonable  where 
its  object  is  the  production  of  children.  These  condi- 
tions lead  to  a  loss  of  self-respect,  which  can  but 
reenforce  the  depressing  effects  of  the  perversion  of 
instinct.  Thus  is  accelerated  the  spiritual  degrada- 
tion of  the  habitual  prostitute. 
^JProstitution  is  a  practice  of  such  antiquity  that 
its  abolition  appears  hopeless,  i  In  consequence  of 
this  humanity  has  grown  to  accept  it  with  little 
question,  as  if  it  were  but  a  part  of  the  inevitable. 
The  attention  given  to  it  has  for  its  chief  purpose  the 
control  of  the  evils  that  result  from  venereal  disease, 
and  some  progress  has  been  made  in  the  direction  of 
protecting  the  community  from  such  disease.  A 
moderately  efficient  aid  in  this  direction  is  the 
licensing  of  professional  prostitutes  by  the  state, 
the  right  to  practice  this  calling  being  revoked  from 
those  women  who  develop  disease.  But  this  method 
involves  the  official  recognition  of  prostitution  by 
the  state,  as  in  Germany  and  France.  Anglo-Saxon 
countries  have  hesitated  to  follow  this  plan,  partly 
because  state  recognition  is  far  from  being  a  thor- 
oughly effective  means  of  limiting  disease,  partly 


196    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

because  English-speaking  peoples  hesitate  to  give  to 
an  evil  practice  the  color  of  indorsement  that  comes 
from  state  recognition.  Such  indorsement  of  the 
system  has,  at  least,  the  appearance  of  tending  to 
fix  and  perpetuate  it,  and  the  objection  to  it  is  there- 
fore well  founded.  It  is  entirely  consistent  that 
this  attitude  of  mind  should  be  dominant  in  those 
countries  in  which  the  position  of  women  is  highest, 
and  the  respect  for  feminine  qualities  the  greatest. 
Moreover,  it  is  an  open  question  whether  the  phys- 
ical protection  of  society  that  comes  from  public 
examination  and  inspection  cannot  equally  well  be 
obtained  by  teaching  prostitutes  in  their  own 
interest  to  seek  competent  medical  attention. 

It  has  lately  been  suggested,  especially  in  Europe, 
that  persons  seeking  to  marry  should  be  compelled 
to  obtain  a  certificate  of  health  as  a  prenuptial 
sanitary  guarantee.  Such  a  practice  so  outrages  the 
sense  of  personal  privacy  that  it  is  not  likely  to  be 
adopted  by  Anglo-Saxon  races,  whatever  measure  of 
success  it  may  have  elsewhere. 

None  of  these  physical  precautions  touch  the  heart 
of  the  question  of  prostitution ;  they  are  directed 
toward  making  the  system  safe  for  men  rather  than 
toward  its  abolition;  indeed,  through  rendering  it 
comparatively  safe  the  extension  of  prostitution  is 
encouraged.  But  the  tacit  approval  which  society 
gives  to  prostitution  and  a  double  standard  of 
morality  is  based  on  a  wholly  false  assumption, 
namely'',  that  illicit  sexual  relations  are  essential  in 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  197 

any  society.  Yet  it  is  true  that  however  powerful 
may  be  the  sexual  impulse,  its  illicit  gratification  is 
under  no  conditions  essential  to  the  health  of  man 
or  woman.  This  impulse  is  doubtless  difficult  to 
control,  and  especially  so  in  some  persons,  but 
though  it  can  be  learned  only  by  years  of  intelhgent 
education,  self-control  is  as  possible  here  as  in  any 
other  direction.  It  is  quite  within  the  power  of 
conscientious  and  intelligent  parents  to  bring  up 
their  children  in  such  a  way  as  to  screen  them  from 
premature  and  illicit  sexual  indulgence.  But  this  is 
only  possible  where  intelligence  is  sufficiently  great 
to  grasp  the  fundamental  fact  that  to  have  good 
children  is  a  profound  privilege  and  not  a  burden, 
and  that  every  practice  which  imperils  this  privilege 
is  Uable  to  lead  to  suffering  and  loss  of  personal  self- 
respect.  On  the  other  hand,  thoughtless  produc- 
tion and  thoughtless  bringing  up  go  hand  in  hand, 
and  so  long  as  it  is  the  ideal  of  a  nation  to  increase 
in  numbers  without  reference  to  quaUty,  no  prog- 
ress can  be  expected  in  the  restriction  of  prostitu- 
tion, because  there  will  always  be  a  large  undis- 
ciplined class.  It  is,  indeed,  inconceivable  that 
even  the  most  advanced  nations  will  not  always 
contain  a  lower  stratum  so  uncontrolled  and  unintel- 
ligent as  to  keep  alive  the  practice  of  prostitution, 
but  there  is  ground  for  hope  that  in  time  a  much 
larger  proportion  of  the  population  will  prove  in- 
eligible for  prostitution  than  is  at  present  the  case. 
Poverty  is  a  factor  in  the  case  in  so  far  as  it  favors 


198    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

failure  in  education  and  self-control  and  dangerous 
propinquity  of  the  youth  of  opposite  sexes.  The 
greatest  of  all  checks  to  prostitution  would  result 
from  the  growth  of  that  refinement  of  feeling  and 
self-consciousness  which  would  render  clear  to  any 
man  the  intense  and  degrading  selfishness  that  does 
not  hesitate  to  damage  the  life  of  another  individual 
for  the  sake  of  personal  sensuous  gratification,  and 
this  feeling  will  be  the  more  strongly  operative  the 
greater  the  respect  for  the  ties  of  family  life  and  the 
greater  the  hope  of  those  concerned  in  one  day  hav- 
ing children.  But  such  changes  as  these  could  come 
only  as  part  of  a  general  elevation  in  the  level  of 
intelligence  and  moral  sensitiveness. 


IV 


The  sex  instincts  do  not  always  lead  in  the  direc- 
tion of  excess.  Indeed,  the  opposite  tendency  not 
rarely  asserts  itself  —  that  is  an  avoidance  of  all 
sexual  relations  in  life.  This  msLy  be  due  to  a  weakly 
developed  sex  instinct  (sometimes  dependent  on 
poor  health)  or  to  the  excessive  distrust  of  a  timid 
or  cold  nature,  or  to  intense  absorption  in  an  occu- 
pation calling  for  a  great  output  of  mental  or  mus- 
cular energy.  In  each  case  the  effect  is  the  same ; 
there  is  a  failure  on  the  part  of  the  individual  to 
reproduce.  There  are  two  great  privileges  which 
nature  accords  to  every  normal  human  being,  —  the 
privilege  of  self-development  and  the  privilege  of 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  199 

having  children.  The  failure  to  have  children  means 
a  break  in  the  continuity  of  a  life  chain  made  up  of 
numberless  links  of  germ  plasma,  derived  from  an 
incalculably  extended  past.  The  biological  gravity 
of  the  break  is  profound  —  too  profound  to  be  imme- 
diately grasped  by  the  imagination.  For  the  first 
break  in  the  life  stream  is  also  the  final  break  and 
means  the  actual  end  of  the  long  chain,  the  fatal  sur- 
render of  all  the  rich  and  varied  human  possibilities 
that  lie  in  the  future.  No  degree  of  self-develop- 
ment, no  personal  satisfaction  or  pleasure,  however 
intense,  is  a  real  compensation  for  the  failure  of 
a  human  being  to  avail  himself  of  the  privilege  of 
perpetuating  his  own  life  stream  by  allowing  it  to 
mingle  with  that  of  a  chosen  life  companion.  Yet 
many  a  man  of  superior  powers  has  sacrificed  his 
line  on  the  altar  of  wealth  and  social  eminence. 
Francis  Galton  called  attention  to  the  destructive 
effect  of  the  British  Peerage  on  the  continuity  of 
families.  Of  English  judges  raised  to  the  peerage 
for  their  abihty,  only  a  very  few  left  famiUes,  despite 
the  fact  that  the  possession  of  a  title  was  a  powerful 
inducement  to  marry  and  transmit  it.  But  the  mar- 
riages were  commonly  made  late  in  life  with  women 
of  wealthy  families  and  little  reproductive  power  — 
the  acquisition  of  a  peerage  requiring  a  considerable 
outlay  of  money  to  maintain  conventional  standards 
of  dignity.  The  biological  failure  to  continue  the 
race  —  the  only  complete  and  irredeemable  failure 
in  life  —  may  be  glossed  over  by  worldly  success 


200   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

or  pleasure,  or  by  the  intellectual  satisfactions  that 
arise  from  concentration  of  effort,  but  it  is  unsus- 
ceptible of  compensation.  When  the  world  once 
realizes  this,  it  will  teach  its  rising  generations  to  safe- 
guard jealously  and  deliberately  the  most  precious 
and  potent  powers,  instead  of  trifling  with  them. 

Thus  it  happens  that  as  a  preponderance  of  the 
sex  instinct  over  the  instinct  of  self-preservation 
tends  to  the  destruction  of  the  individual,  so  the  un- 
due preponderance  of  the  somatic  instincts  over  the 
sex  instinct  leads  to  the  fatal  break  in  the  racial 
line.  Both  fatalities  are  due  to  that  imperfection  in 
the  balance  of  antagonistic  (but  also  cooperative) 
forces  which  is  the  distinguishing  feature  of  the 
normal,  in  body  and  in  mind.  Instinct  tends  to 
guard  the  individual  against  either  of  these  fatalities. 
It  makes  him  self-conscious  and  cautious  or  timid  in 
entering  on  the  exercise  of  the  sex  functions.  By 
some  disregard  of  the  natural  mentor  (a  disregard 
often  fostered  by  education  of  an  imperfect  kind) 
man  falls  into  the  error  of  excess.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  excessive  inhibition  of  the  sex  impulse, 
or  its  undue  feebleness  as  compared  with  the  power 
of  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  may  result  in  the 
extinction  of  a  human  line,  and  all  that  this  implies. 
So  it  is  clear  that  the  best  and  most  satisfying  results 
in  human  destiny  are  likely  to  be  found  where  the 
somatic  instincts  maintain  a  well-balanced  relation 
to  those  of  sexual  origin  —  neither  suppressing  the 
latter  nor  unduly  releasing  them  from  inhibition. 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVroUAL  201 


The  chief  aim  of  the  sex  instinct  is  to  beget  chil- 
dren. But  while  mere  production  may  satisfy  this 
instinct  in  its  elementary  form,  intelligence  and  the 
instinct  of  affection  make  two  demands  of  an  im- 
portant kind  as  to  the  quaUty  of  the  offspring  and 
the  conditions  of  its  development.  The  desire  to 
have  healthy  and  well-formed  children  is  universal 
among  parents,  and  the  presence  of  a  malformation 
in  any  part  of  the  body  (as  clubfoot  or  hair  lip) 
excites  regret  or  arouses  commiseration  or  disgust. 
Similarly,  the  appearance  of  mental  defects  causes 
distress  to  all  parents  except  those  of  the  lowest 
order.  Instinctively,  then,  there  is  a  demand  for  a 
good  heredity,  bodily  and  mental.  Parents  are, 
however,  wretchedly  ignorant  of  the  best  ways  of 
securing  these  good  qualities  in  their  offspring,  and 
very  few  give  any  thought  to  such  known  laws  of 
heredity  as  might,  in  a  measure,  guide  them.  Man 
looks  with  nice  care  to  the  pedigree  of  his  dogs,  horses, 
and  cattle  when  he  mates  them,  yet  seldom  considers 
in  his  marriage  the  possible  influence  of  his  selection 
upon  his  children.  It  is  thinkable  that  people  might 
err  in  marriage  based  too  largely  on  calculating 
choice,  and  not  enough  on  instinctive  attraction, 
but  it  is  clear  that  they  could  safely  take  more 
interest  in  trying  to  secure,  not  only  better  physical 
traits,  but  also  better  moral  and  intellectual  ones. 


202    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

The  race  would  certainly  be  a  great  gainer  if  intel- 
ligent and  deliberate  selection  for  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities  could  be  substituted  for  selection 
based  largely  on  the  attraction  of  mere  beauty, 
wealth,  or  social  rank. 

In  considering  the  effect  of  heredity  on  human 
offspring  an  important  distinction  has  to  be  recog- 
nized —  the  distinction  between  true  hereditary 
qualities  that  are  impressed  on  the  germ  plasm  and 
various  kinds  of  damage  inflicted  on  the  germ  plasm 
by  injurious  agents,  such  as  poisons  or  effects  aris- 
ing from  impairment  in  nutrition.  It  is  well  known 
that  ordinary  acquired  characters  are  not  trans- 
mitted to  the  offspring.  For  example,  the  circum- 
stance that  a  father  or  mother  has  lost  an  arm  or 
leg  previously  to  the  time  of  conception  has  no  effect 
on  the  offspring ;  and,  indeed,  mutilations  generally 
are  without  perceptible  influence.  Similarly,  there  is 
no  evidence  that  if  a  man,  by  exercises  (as  rowing), 
greatly  develops  his  biceps  muscles,  his  child 
will  have  large  biceps  muscles.  But  while  there  is 
thus  no  specific  transmission  of  such  an  acquired 
character,  all  influences  that  bring  good  physical 
development  to  the  father  or  mother  may  bring  a 
greater  store  of  energy  to  the  germ  cells  by  improv- 
ing their  supply  of  nutriment  by  way  of  the  blood 
stream.  On  the  contrary,  all  conditions  that  en- 
feeble the  body  are  liable  to  diminish  the  store  of 
energy  in  the  germ  cells  by  decreasing  their  nutri- 
ment from  the  blood  stream.     It  should  be  clear 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVIDUAL  203 

that  these  are  not  examples  of  the  transmission  of 
specific  acquired  physical  characters,  but  only  of  a 
general  nutritional  effect  exerted  through  the  food 
suppUes  of  the  blood. 

Nor  is  there  any  evidence  that  acquired  mental 
characters  are  transmitted.  It  is  discouraging  to 
think  that  children  receive  no  benefit  from  the  cul- 
ture gained  by  their  parents  as  the  result  of  long- 
continued  deliberate  effort.  It  is  not  safe  to  say 
that  the  germ  plasm  cannot  be  influenced  in  any  way 
through  mental  effort,  but  it  is  safe  to  say  that  there 
are  at  present  no  indications  of  such  influence.  A 
great  many  examples  have  been  cited  to  prove  that 
maternal  impressions  during  pregnancy  have  had  a 
definite  effect  on  the  offspring,  but  none  of  these 
can  be  said  to  be  good  evidence  for  an  affect  exerted 
through  the  nervous  system  of  the  mother.  It 
seems  that  the  germ  cells  are  not  influenced  in  recog- 
nizable ways  by  the  action  of  the  nervous  system  of 
the  parents.  The  realization  that  this  is  so  tends 
to  emphasize  a  fatalistic  attitude  toward  life.  If  a 
parent  can  transmit  only  those  qualities  to  his  off- 
spring that  have  been  predetermined  in  his  germ 
plasma,  there  appears  to  be  little  inducement  to  self- 
betterment  in  so  far  as  it  may  affect  the  offspring 
favorably. 

But  a  fatalism  so  grounded  is  no  legitimate  cause 
for  discouragement.  The  fact  that  we  cannot  detect 
in  the  offspring  any  results  of  acquired  mental  char- 
acters is  not  positive  proof  that  no  effect  whatever  is 


204   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF^HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

exerted,  since  it  is  true  that  the  criteria  of  judgment 
on  this  point  are,  as  akeady  indicated,  by  no  means 
simple  or  convincing.  The  question  of  such  trans- 
mission must,  therefore,  be  left  open.  There  is, 
however,  one  salient  fact  of  biology  that  renders  a 
blind  and  hopeless  fatalistic  standpoint  an  unten- 
able one.  Admitting  it  to  be  true  that  the  parent 
cannot  improve  the  hereditary  quality  of  the  germ 
cells  which  he  holds  in  trust  for  his  line  and  for  the 
race,  it  is  nevertheless  true  that  the  conduct  of  the 
parent  may  detrimentally  influence  the  germ  plasm 
so  as  to  lower  the  maximal  possibilities  of  good  for  the 
offspring.  The  germ  cells  are  sensitive  to  poisons, 
and  may  be  poisoned  in  a  variety  of  ways  by  the 
blood  stream  of  the  parent.  This  is  true  of  both  the 
male  and  female  cells.  The  excessive  use  of  alcohol, 
the  poisons  of  syphilis  and  of  malaria,  the  poisonous 
action  of  lead,  are  all  examples  of  agencies  that  may 
greatly  harm  the  germ  cells  and  the  beings  to  which 
they  are  destined  to  contribute.  The  damaging 
effect  may  be  so  great  as  to  kill  the  germ  plasm. 
Then  there  is  sterility.  Or  the  effect  of  the  poison 
may  not  be  so  severe  as  to  kill  the  germ  plasm,  but 
may  damage  it  in  obscure  ways  that  lead  to  physical 
and  mental  underdevelopment,  or  to  some  well- 
defined  disturbances,  as  epilepsy,  or  insanity,  or  a 
generally  unstable  nervous  system.  There  are  many 
other  poisons  that  injuriously  affect  the  germ  plasm 
—  as  the  chronic  poisoning  in  kidney  disease,  in 
gout,  and  in  diabetes,  or  in  tuberculosis.    The  exact 


SEX  AND  THE  INDIVroUAL  205 

effects  of  such  poisons  on  the  offspring  cannot  be 
predicted  with  accuracy.  It  is  sufficient  to  reaUze 
that  they  each  are  able  to  depress  the  powers  of  the 
new  Hfe,  and  thus  to  place  the  new  human  being  at 
a  disadvantage  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 

It  was  previously  thought  that  these  injmies 
inflicted  on  the  germ  cells  were  examples  of  the  trans- 
mission of  acquired  character,  and  even  Herbert 
Spencer  fell  into  this  error.  Nothing  is  now  more 
clear  than  that  these  are  simply  the  direct  effect  of 
poisons  and  have  nothing  to  do  with  true  heredity. 

Finally  it  is  well  to  realize  that  the  growing 
embryo  within  the  womb  of  the  mother  is  subject  to 
similar  damage  from  poisons  or  injurious  bacteria 
that  enter  the  maternal  blood.  The  germ  cells  of 
both  father  and  mother  may  have  escaped  all  inju- 
rious influences,  only  to  fall  a  prey  after  impregna- 
tion to  poisons  developed  in  the  mother  after  preg- 
nancy has  set  in. 

The  practical  inferences  from  these  facts  are  very 
simple.  Neither  parent  is  responsible  for  the  hered- 
itary quaUties  which  belong  to  the  germ  plasma. 
The  maximal  possibihties,  physical,  moral,  and 
mental,  of  the  children  are  wholly  determined  by  the 
nature  of  the  qualities  of  the  germ  cells  that  fuse  to 
begin  the  new  life.  By  intelUgent  and  conscientious 
Hving  the  parents  may  hope  to  maintain  in  a  high 
state  of  nutrition  the  germ  cells  which  they  hold  in 
trust,  and  so  to  guard  for  their  child  the  energies 
inherent  in  the  cells  which  make  up  its  body.    But 


206    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

any  lapse  in  good  habits  of  living,  or  any  accident 
which  subjects  the  parents  to  the  poisonous  effects 
of  disease,  becomes  a  hazard  to  the  next  generation, 
and  may  place  on  it  a  mortgage  of  physical  debility 
or  mental  defect  which  can  never  be  paid  off.  There- 
fore, so  to  live  as  to  secure  for  children,  unimpaired, 
the  heritage  which  nature  has  made  possible  for  them 
should  be  accounted  a  prime  virtue.  On  the  other 
hand,  so  to  live,  either  through  ignorance  or  self- 
indulgence,  as  to  betray  the  precious  life  trust  reposed 
by  nature  in  every  healthy  man  and  woman  is 
always  a  profound  misfortune  and  frequently,  also, 
a  crime  against  humanity. 


CHAPTER  IX 

SEX  AND   SOCIAL  RELATIONS 

In  the  social  relations  between  the  two  sexes  there 
is  much  to  be  criticized  from  a  philosophical  stand- 
point, and  much  room  for  improvement  in  the 
direction  of  greater  considerateness,  sincerity,  and 
naturalness.  In  primitive  communities  the  relations 
between  male  and  female  are  apt  to  be  free,  and  this 
freedom  too  often  degenerates  into  license  and  the 
evils  attendant  on  sexual  immorality.  These  evils 
have  so  impressed  some  of  the  hardier  and  more 
self-controlled  races  as  to  lead  them  to  make  and 
enforce  severe  laws  against  illicit  sexual  relations,  as 
in  the  case  of  the  ancient  Teutons.  In  all  times 
women  have  been  prized  in  large  degree  as  a  means  of 
gratifying  sexual  impulses  in  men,  and  among  many 
races  they  have  been  scorned  as  companions,  and 
allowed  little  opportunity  for  personal  development. 
Under  such  conditions  there  has  always  been  a 
tendency  to  guard  women  jealously.  This  tendency 
is  well  marked  to-day  among  Mohammedans  and 
among  the  Spanish,  but  it  exists,  in  some  degree, 
among  all  European  nations.  Whenever  girls  and 
women  are  jealously  watched  and  shut  off  from  free 
communication  with  men,  the  precautions  are  trace- 

207 


208   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

able  to  a  low  standard  of  sexual  morality  among  the 
men.  In  England  and  in  the  United  States,  where 
women  are  in  a  larger  degree  the  companions  of  men, 
a  better  standard  of  sexual  morality  prevails  and  the 
sexes  mix  freely  and  with  little  suspicion  of  dan- 
ger. This  freedom  of  relationship  between  men  and 
women  is  most  highly  developed  in  the  United  States. 
It  is  rendered  possible  by  the  relatively  high  stand- 
ards of  sexual  Ufe  existing  here  among  the  men. 
And  this  freedom  can  exist  with  safety  only  where 
men  and  women  have  sympathies  and  interests  in 
which  gross  sexual  ideas  have  little  or  no  part. 

But  even  in  the  United  States  many  restrictions 
exist  on  the  social  relations  between  the  sexes,  which 
might  advantageously  be  relaxed,  and  doubtless  will 
be  relaxed,  when  people  have  developed  more  self- 
control  and  greater  thoughtfulness.  Among  well- 
intentioned  people  the  real  dangers  of  sexual  license 
are  often  so  greatly  feared  as  to  make  them  timid 
and  excessively  guarded  in  their  social  relations  with 
persons  of  opposite  sex.  This  has  the  effect  of 
greatly  restricting  the  broader  educational  influence 
of  free,  sympathetic,  and  intelligent  intercourse  be- 
tween persons  of  opposite  sex  —  a  factor  in  human 
development  powerful  for  good  and  relatively  un- 
utilized as  yet. 

These  restrictive  effects  are  seen  especially  among 
married  people.  The  idea  is  generally  prevalent  that 
when  two  persons  have  once  been  linked  by  the 
bonds  of  matrimony,  they  must  wholly  satisfy  each 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  209 

other's  needs  in  all  directions.  This  is  a  strongly 
antibiological  notion  which  cannot  stand  close 
scrutiny.  It  is  true,  that  it  often  happens  among 
people  of  limited  interests  and  intelligence,  who  are 
mainly  occupied  with  getting  the  means  of  subsist- 
ence, that  the  marriage  relation  is  regarded  in  a 
matter-of-fact  way  and  its  perfection  is  never  chal- 
lenged. If  the  couple  be  true  to  one  another  in  the 
limited  physical  sense,  if  the  father  makes  the  neces- 
sary gains  to  support  his  family,  and  the  mother 
faithfully  tends  her  children,  we  have  the  picture  of 
commonplace  bourgeois  happiness  and  contentment. 
But  this  happiness  is  really  less  secure  than  it  appears, 
for  it  is  in  danger  from  the  invasion  of  new  human 
interests  into  the  minds  of  either  parent.  And  when 
such  invasion  occurs,  it  frequently  breeds  trouble, 
because  neither  party  to  the  marriage  contract  under- 
stands the  situation.  One  partner,  or  both,  fails 
to  recognize  the  naturalness  and  legitimacy  of  the 
new  and  intrusive  human  interest  and,  therefore, 
tends  to  act  without  full  sincerity.  The  result  is 
usually  either  an  unnatural  stultifying  and  absurd 
retreat  from  new  human  interests,  or  a  lack  of  sjma- 
pathy  and  understanding  between  man  and  wife, 
which  lead  to  dissension  or  coldness  and,  too  often,  to 
the  vulgarities  of  divorce. 

The  essential  truth  as  to  human  marriage  is  simple 
enough.  Man  is  naturally  an  imperfectly  monog- 
amous animal.  Woman  is  conversely  mildly  poly- 
androus  in  tendency,  but  this  inclination  is  power- 


210   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

fully  modified  by  the  interests  and  care  of  the  family. 
It  is  wholly  out  of  accord  with  the  primitive  and 
acquired  tendencies  of  man  that  one  human  male 
should,  in  all  respects,  satisfy  the  needs  of  a  human 
female ;  and  the  converse  of  this  is  also  true.  Each 
human  being  is  so  complex  in  mental,  moral,  and 
emotional  make-up  that  no  one  nature  can  be  suffi- 
ciently rich  to  recognize,  meet,  and  call  forth  all  that 
is  best  in  another,  whether  this  other  being  is  of  the 
same  or  the  opposite  sex.  So  long  as  harsh  circum- 
stances of  life  suppress  development,  a  man  or  woman 
may  be  blinded  to  his  or  her  spiritual  needs.  But 
when  there  is  leisure  for  thought  and  opportunity  for 
a  multiplying  of  human  contacts,  the  limitations  of 
the  life  mate  must  become  apparent  to  any  honest 
mind,  dimly  at  first,  sooner  or  later  more  plainly. 
So  it  happens  that  every  intelligent  and  well-endowed 
man  requires  the  friendship  and  stimulus  of  more 
than  one  woman,  and  every  intelligent  and  well- 
endowed  woman  requires  the  friendship  and  stimulus 
of  more  than  one  man.  If  spiritual  and  physical 
charm  enter  into  the  attraction  of  such  friendship, 
this  is  well,  for  the  sentiment  that  is  born  of  charm 
is  a  strong  developmental  and  civilizing  force. 
Marriages  are  the  result  of  accidental  propinquity. 
It  is  a  pretty  sentiment  that  such  accidents  have 
brought  together  two  persons  who  are  exactly  fitted 
for  each  other,  and  that  no  other  choice  could  have 
been  possible.  But  it  is  an  idea  for  children  and 
not  for  men  and  women,  and  it  carries  with  it  a 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  211 

danger  to  happiness  because  it  runs  counter  to  the 
facts  of  life. 

It  is  shocking  to  the  conventionally  minded  to 
realize  that  a  sexual  element  may  enter  into  an  other- 
wise platonic  friendship  between  one  member  of  a 
married  couple  and  an  outsider  of  opposite  sex. 
But  let  us  not  deceive  ourselves  on  this  vital  point. 
The  history  of  human  marriage  plainly  shows  that 
the  relative  considerateness  now  shown  by  men  of 
the  highest  civilization  toward  women,  in  respect 
to  their  desire  for  sexual  faithfulness,  is  a  late  devel- 
opment and,  therefore,  one  that  is  easily  lost.  The 
motives  that  have  led  to  monogamy  belong  in  two 
distinct  groups,  motives  based  on  ordinary  self- 
interest  and  motives  based  on  a  refined  form  of 
altruistic  feeling.  Monogamy  appears  to  have  been 
one  of  the  most  primitive  forms  of  marriage,  but  it 
may  be  confidently  assumed  that  this  early  monog- 
amy was  due  almost  wholly  to  practical  reasons. 
In  rude  communities,  where  life  is  maintained  chiefly 
by  hunting,  men  have  few  inducements  to  take  to 
themselves  many  wives,  especially  as  the  labor  of 
women  has  httle  value  under  such  conditions.  In  a 
higher  state  of  civilization,  where  people  live  in 
comparatively  fixed  conununities  and  till  the  soil, 
polygamy  becomes  more  attractive  to  the  males. 
This  is  because  it  offers  them  the  services  of  many 
persons  as  laborers,  the  opportunity  of  raising  large 
families  (thus  increasing  the  influence  of  the  head  of 
the  family  in  his  tribe),  and  varied  sexual  gratifica- 


212    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

tion.  At  last  polygamy  yielded  to  a  great  extent 
to  monogamy  in  a  higher  state  of  civilization.  Here, 
again,  the  reasons  for  monogamy  are  at  least  in  part 
of  a  practical  nature  rather  than  a  sentimental 
nature.  With  higher  civilization  comes  a  decrease 
in  wars.  This  lowers  the  death  rate  of  men  to  a 
point  where  it  is  more  nearly  like  that  of  women, 
thus  removing  that  disproportion  of  the  sexes  which, 
amongst  warlike  peoples,  makes  polygamy  a  bio- 
logical necessity.  The  desire  for  offspring  also  grows 
less  pressing,  for  a  large  family  tends  to  become  a 
burden  rather  than  a  help  in  the  struggle  for  existence. 
Again,  domesticated  animals  and  machinery  take  the 
place  of  a  plurality  of  wives.  A  most  serious  prac- 
tical drawback  to  polygamy  is  the  difficulty  in  giving 
individual  paternal  attention  to  the  education  of 
numerous  children  of  varied  heredity.  In  Egypt 
the  superior  position  of  the  Copts,  as  compared  with 
the  Arabs,  is  due  mainly  to  the  better  education  that 
is  possible  within  the  monogamous  Christian  sect. 
Finally,  a  less  practical  consideration  is  the  fact  that 
the  conditions  of  modern  civilized  life  give  women  a 
better  chance  to  maintain  their  health  and  beauty  — 
a  powerful  influence  in  holding  the  husband  in  a  state 
of  contentment  with  one  wife.  Indeed,  it  is  the 
strength  of  this  personal  attraction  that  determines 
the  permanence  of  monogamy  as  an  institution. 
As  men  have  grown  more  intelligent  and  refined, 
they  have  grown  more  sensitive  to  all  kinds  of  femi- 
nine charm,  and  hence  more  anxious  to  respect  the 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  213 

wishes  and  feelings  of  their  Ufe  companions.  The 
finer  sympathy  and  understanding  and  the  deep  de- 
votion which  are  often  the  spmtual  fruition  of  the 
monogamous  relation  are  impossible  where  a  man 
has  several  wives.  Where  men  and  women  experi- 
ence this  beautiful  outcome  of  monogamy,  they  learn 
to  prize  it,  and  this  is  the  surest  guarantee  of  the 
higher  races  against  a  return  to  polygamy.  The 
firm  establishment  of  monogamy  in  reality  expresses 
the  slow  and  difficult  triumph  of  women  over  the 
brutality  and  selfishness  of  men.  This  triumph  is 
yet  far  from  complete,  and  its  extension  to  larger  and 
larger  groups  of  people  is  one  of  the  chief  means  and 
ends  of  human  progress.  Only  the  atrophy  of  altru- 
istic feeling  can  lead  to  the  abandonment  of  the 
institution  of  marriage  between  one  man  and  one 
woman. 

What  is  the  bearing  of  these  facts  on  the  liberty  of 
action  of  individual  married  persons  with  respect  to 
friendships  and  attachments  to  persons  of  opposite 
sex  ?  The  growth  of  trust  and  love  between  married 
persons  is  no  real  hindrance  to  the  establishment  of 
such  friendships  and  attachments,  but,  on  the  con- 
trary, serves  to  promote  them.  Where  love  and 
trust  are  lacking,  it  must  often  happen  that  unrea- 
sonable restrictions  are  placed  on  the  freedom  of 
association,  and  this  jealousy  can  only  do  harm 
because  it  limits  the  best  and  fullest  development  of 
the  partners  in  marriage.  But  whatever  freedom  of 
action  is  permitted,  it  is  the  verdict  of  society  that 


214    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

this  should  not  extend  to  sexual  relations,  and  this 
conclusion  is  a  sound  one  in  theory  and  practice. 
But  the  reasons  for  the  validity  of  this  conventional 
verdict  should  not  be  misunderstood.  Freedom  of 
sexual  relations  is  interdicted  simply  because  it  has 
been  shown  by  experience  to  lead  in  practice  to  bad 
results.  Such  sexual  indulgence  is  not  in  itself 
necessarily  harmful,  but  the  risk  of  harm  of  one  sort 
or  another  is  very  great  where  practiced  extra- 
maritally.  For  this  reason  it  is  practically  always 
wrong  to  run  a  risk  to  happiness,  however  strongly 
reason  and  inclination  may  conspire  to  persuade  the 
intending  persons  that  in  their  special  case  there 
can  be  no  danger.  It  sometimes  happens  that  the 
understanding  between  married  persons  is  so  generous 
that  an  almost  unlimited  freedom  is  granted  by  one 
of  them  to  the  other,  without  being  due  to  any  decline 
in  personal  affection.  But  such  conditions  seldom 
arise  and  should  not  be  utilized  when  they  do  arise 
—  and  again  solely  because  of  the  risk  to  happiness. 
There  is  the  less  excuse  for  the  acceptance  of  such 
proffered  liberty  because  all  the  finer  possibilities  of 
permanent  friendship  between  man  and  woman 
may  be  had  without  resort  to  the  relatively  grosser 
indulgences  of  the  sex  passion.  All  that  is  best  of 
the  undeniably  great  charm  of  sex  may  be  retained 
in  the  sentiment  of  such  friendships  and  without 
the  danger  of  the  loss  of  self-respect  that  attends 
the  physical  gratification  of  sexual  impulse.  As  the 
human  race  gains  in  self-control  it  will  learn  more 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  215 

and  more  to  enjoy  the  legitimate  friendships  that  are 
possible  between  men  and  women,  without  the  con- 
stant intrusion  of  the  sex  idea  and  without  the  risk 
of  arousing  jealousy,  where  one,  or  both,  of  the 
parties  to  such  friendship  happen  to  be  married. 
But  that  enlightened  self-coDtrol  which  alone  can 
make  possible  the  higher  friendships  between  man 
and  woman,  and  that  generosity  of  feeling  between 
married  people  which  leads  each  to  extend  to  the 
other  every  reasonable  liberty,  will  continue  to  be 
rare  qualities  of  the  race  so  long  as  parents  and 
teachers  ignore  the  simplest  biological  truths  relat- 
ing to  sex,  and  without  a  knowledge  of  which  boys 
and  girls  are  too  often  the  easy  victims  of  curiosity 
and  of  passion. 


It  has  just  been  contended  that  the  desire  for 
freedom  in  the  marriage  relation  is  natural  and 
beneficial.  In  actual  life  there  is  often  between  the 
partners  so  wide  a  difference  of  opinion  as  to  the 
proper  bounds  of  this  liberty  that  the  matrimonial 
ties  are  broken.  There  are  few  human  problems 
more  difiicult  to  solve  wisely  than  legitimate  condi- 
tions for  separation  of  dissatisfied  couples.  There  is, 
I  venture  to  think,  one  controlling  biological  factor 
which  should  be  recognized  in  all  questions  of 
divorce.  This  is,  of  course,  no  other  than  the  inter- 
ests of  the  next  generation.  If  there  is  a  child,  or 
the  immediate  promise  of  a  child,  the  conditions 


216    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

legitimizing  separation  are  essentially  different  from 
those  that  must  count  in  the  absence  of  family 
responsibilities.  Where  there  is  no  child,  and  no 
immediate  promise  of  one,  there  should  be  con- 
siderable latitude  as  to  separation.  To  limit  the 
grounds  of  divorce  to  the  usual  statutory  ones 
implies  much  too  narrow  a  view  of  the  right  to  in- 
dividual freedom.  Harshness  of  temper,  unconge- 
niality,  or  well-grounded  dislike  should  be  sufficient 
ground  for  legal  separation,  for  there  is  a  consider- 
able loss  in  efficiency  as  well  as  happiness  from  being 
forced  to  live  with  a  person  for  whom  one  has  no 
affection  or  respect.  The  necessity  for  separation 
involves  the  admission  of  a  sad  failure  in  the  most 
important  personal  relation  of  life. 

This  failure  implies  unfortunate  impulsiveness,  or 
bad  judgment,  or  low  motives  in  entering  on  so  vital 
a  step.  But  disastrous  marriages  are  seldom  of 
criminal  origin,  and  there  is  no  valid  reason  why  they 
should  be  punished  by  their  obhgatory  m^aintenance. 
A  sufficient  punishment  for  the  divorced  and  childless 
individual  lies  in  the  consciousness  of  failure  in  a  re- 
lation so  important,  in  a  certain  loss  of  prestige  with 
decent  people,  and  in  the  prolonged  financial  responsi- 
bility which,  in  some  cases  at  least,  should  attend  legal 
separation.  In  order  to  guard  against  a  precipitate 
repetition  of  the  same  kind  of  mistake  with  a  new 
partner,  a  new  marriage  should  not  be  permitted  until 
after  the  lapse  of  a  reasonable  period,  to  be  deter- 
mined by  the  judges  granting  the  degree  of  divorce. 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  217 

Where  the  mismatched  partners  have  a  child,  or 
the  promise  of  one,  the  problem  is  far  more  grave, 
and  the  grounds  for  separation  should  be  of  a  com- 
pelling character  based  on  the  interests  of  the  off- 
spring. If  it  is  clear  that  the  interests  of  the  child 
will  suffer  more  through  a  continuance  of  the  dis- 
tasteful marriage  tie  than  through  its  dissolution, 
the  bond  should  be  severed.  If,  on  the  contrary, 
there  is  even  a  fair  prospect  that  the  education, 
health,  or  general  welfare  of  the  child  will  be  lowered 
by  the  altered  conditions  of  life  following  the  sepa- 
ration, every  means  should  be  used  to  prevent  it. 
In  other  words,  the  biological  criterion  should  here 
be  paramount.  In  voluntarily  bringing  a  new 
being  into  the  world  a  biological  responsibility  is 
incurred  which  is  not  easily  satisfied.  A  decree  of 
divorce  is  impotent  to  alter  this  responsibility  by 
one  jot ;  the  obligations  to  the  child  remain  exactly 
what  they  were  before  the  separation.  The  duty 
which  springs  from  the  biological  relation  between 
parent  and  child  is  simple  but  widely  and  deeply 
comprehensive.  It  is  to  provide  the  best  conditions 
within  the  power  of  the  parents  for  the  most  complete 
development  of  the  inherent  capacities  of  the  child. 
The  reader  will  recall  that,  in  speaking  of  the  condi- 
tions which  prolong  hfe  and  render  it  physically 
eflScient,  it  was  pointed  out  that  there  is  commonly 
a  great  and  measurably  preventable  waste  of  phys- 
ical potentiality.  Thus  on  the  physical  side  of 
development   alone    the    watchful    and   intelligent 


218    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

parent  has  an  extremely  taxing  duty  before  him. 
But  if  this  be  true  of  physical  development,  how- 
much  more  strongly  does  it  apply  to  the  intellectual, 
aesthetic,  and  emotional  side  of  the  child's  develop- 
ment !  Here  is  an  unending  series  of  problems 
calUng  for  knowledge,  devotion,  tact,  adaptability, 
sympathy.  With  all  these  aids  parents  are  sure  to 
fall  far  short  of  the  highest  reasonable  ideal  for  the 
psychical  unfolding  of  their  child;  and  the  very 
knowledge  that  this  is  so  leads  the  best  parents  to 
struggle  unceasingly,  and  with  the  utmost  earnestness, 
toward  the  attainment  of  their  ideal.  Now  it  re- 
quires little  reflection  to  see  that  in  an  undertaking 
so  complex  and  subtle  as  the  serious  education  of  a 
child,  there  is  required  the  cooperation  of  both 
parents.  If  each  parent  separately  is  capable  of 
doing  real  service  to  the  child,  it  follows  that  their 
united  efforts  must  be  far  more  effective  than  either 
singly.  The  child  should  have  the  benefit  of  the 
different  point  of  view  of  father  and  of  mother, 
based  on  differences  in  temperament,  experience, 
and  sex.  The  removal  of  the  parent  from  the  sphere 
of  influence  upon  the  child,  be  it  by  illness,  death,  or 
divorce,  subjects  it  to  an  incalculable  loss,  opens 
a  chasm  which  can  never  be  spanned  by  any  substi- 
tute. For  every  intelligent  parent  should  have  in 
himself  or  in  herself  a  wholly  individual  and  pene- 
trating action  on  the  mind  of  the  child,  which  no 
other  person,  however  well  trained,  can  exert.  This 
power  inheres  in   the  biological  relation  between 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  219 

parent  and  child,  which  expresses  itself  in  certain 
definite  resemblances  of  the  child  to  the  parent  — 
resemblances  in  physique  and  in  intellectual  and 
emotional  reactions.  This  similarity  in  reaction  is 
normally  the  basis  of  a  psychical  penetration  into 
the  child  life  which  is  not  given,  in  anything  like  the 
same  degree,  to  any  other  person.  This  assertion 
does  not  hold  good,  perhaps,  for  all  phases  of  the 
child's  psychical  life,  but  surely  it  is  valid  for  some 
of  them.  These  phases  resemble  an  elaborate  lock 
to  which  there  exist  only  two  keys  —  the  maternal 
mind  and  the  paternal  mind.  The  fact  that  many 
parents  do  not  use  these  keys,  and  are,  indeed,  un- 
aware of  their  possession,  does  not  vitiate  the  truth  of 
this  view. 

Thus  divorce  deprives  the  offspring  of  a  large  part 
of  that  which  is  its  most  precious  birthright  —  the 
possibility  of  sympathetic  parental  help.  This  may 
prove  as  definite  a  handicap  in  the  struggle  for  exist- 
ence as  the  loss  of  an  arm  or  a  leg.  Now  this 
parental  secession  from  a  clearly  implied  biological 
obligation,  being  not  accidental  but  wholly  delib- 
erate, must  be  regarded  as  the  most  serious  breach 
of  trust  by  which  one  human  being  can  damage 
another.  The  human  mind  is,  for  the  most  part,  so 
preoccupied  with  things  and  with  static  rather  than 
dynamic  points  of  view,  that  this  statement  of  the 
case  will  appeal  to  many  as  extreme.  The  more 
closely  the  position  is  scrutinized,  the  most  strongly 
will  it  appeal  to  the  sense  of  justice. 


220    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

If  the  soundness  of  this  view  be  admitted,  it  follows 
that  the  grounds  for  divorce  should  be  of  the  most 
weighty  nature.  It  should  not  suffice  that  they  are 
the  conventional  grounds  of  sexual  infidelity  of  one 
or  other  parent.  Such  infidelity  is,  of  course,  ob- 
jectionable, but  is,  in  some  instances,  pardonable, 
in  the  sense  that  it  has  had  its  origin  in  exceptional 
provocation,  or  under  the  influence  of  a  temporary 
misunderstanding  between  man  and  wife,  or  under 
the  influence  of  alcoholic  intoxication  or  disease.  It 
is  possible  for  either  parent  to  be  guilty  of  such  an 
infidelity  and  still  be  a  helpful  parent  and  partner. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  are  offences  other  than 
adultery  which  may  fairly  be  regarded  as  grounds 
for  divorce.  Among  them  are  habitual  alcoholism, 
vagabondage,  repeated  and  vindictive  maltreatment, 
and  an  entire  indifference  (whether  on  the  part  of 
the  father  or  the  mother)  to  the  welfare  of  child  or 
children.  The  situations  which  arise  in  consequence 
of  these  forms  of  bad  behavior  are  apt  to  be  complex. 
Yet  in  some  cases  they  can  be  cleared  up  by  impartial 
and  intelligent  outside  interference.  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  a  board  of  judges  especially  trained  for 
the  investigation  and  adjudication  of  cases  in  which 
divorce  is  sought  would  be  a  distinct  help.  The 
men  serving  in  such  a  court  should  be  trained  in 
the  law  and,  to  some  degree,  in  science,  but,  also, 
they  should  be  experienced  in  human  affairs,  should 
have  large  insight  into  elementary  human  psychology, 
and,  above  all,  should  bring  sympathy  and  interest 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  221 

to  bear  on  their  work.  Such  a  court,  to  serve  its 
object  best,  should  investigate  as  well  as  judge.  It 
would,  perhaps,  be  possible  to  stave  off  divorce  in 
many  instances  where  it  is  now  granted.  The 
cardinal  principle  in  the  management  of  such  cases 
should  be  the  grave  emphasis  of  the  claims  of  the 
child  to  the  utmost  patience  and  self-sacrifice  on  the 
part  of  the  unfortunate  parents.  It  seems  not  an 
impracticable  idea  that  a  highly  intelligent  appeal, 
animated  by  the  spirit  of  biological  truth,  could  be 
made  effective  in  the  prevention  of  divorce  in  cases 
where  misunderstanding  has  been  clouded  by  igno- 
rance, prejudice,  egotism,  or  false  pride.  Where 
the  intelligence  and  temperament  of  the  parents  is 
of  such  an  order  that  malice  or  deep-rooted  dislike 
enter  prominently  into  the  emotional  reactions  of 
one  or  both  of  them,  the  case  is  hopeless  and  the 
child  probably  better  for  escaping  witnessing  the 
dissensions.  But  of  the  disagreements  which  now 
end  in  divorce,  it  is  likely  that  a  fair  proportion  have 
a  less  serious  basis.  That  there  are  numerous  in- 
stances where  the  extreme  step  of  divorce  is  not 
essential  to  relieve  the  situation  is  shown  by  the  good 
effect  of  the  English  law  by  which  a  legal  separation 
without  divorce  is  brought  about.  This  plan  has 
the  advantage  of  preventing  a  new  marriage,  while 
providing  for  alimony  and  leaving  open  a  chance  for 
ultimate  reconciliation. 

The    same    biological    considerations    which,    in 
general,  make  divorce  a  misfortune  for  the  children, 


222    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

would  operate  with  still  greater  force  under  the  social- 
istic measures  which  propose  to  leave  their  case  to 
the  state.  It  is  difficult  to  picture  a  less  intelligent 
and  more  grossly  antibiological  idea  than  that 
which  would  separate  parents  and  children.  An 
equally  antisocial  measure  can  hardly  be  conceived, 
for  to  separate  a  family  from  the  people  naturally 
best  endowed  to  rear  them  would  be  to  rob  the 
community  of  the  human  qualities  that  make  most 
strongly  for  the  civilization  based  on  individual  de- 
velopment, since  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  most 
of  the  best  social  traits  are  those  developed  through 
family  relations.  But  it  is  only  fair  to  say  that  this 
insane  idea  is  far  from  being  a  representative  tenet 
of  sociahsm. 

II 

Is  it  possible  to  regulate  human  r^roduction  in 
such  ways  as  will  inure  to  the  advantage  of  a  com- 
munity or  nation  or  race?  To  what  extent  and 
under  what  conditions  can  human  reproduction  be 
controlled?  These  questions  are  so  involved  as  to 
invite  evasion.  Yet  it  is  certain  that  no  discussion 
of  the  sex  instinct  can  afford  to  ignore  a  matter  of 
such  fundamental  importance.  If  we  are  unable  to 
reach  final  conclusions  on  the  main  issues  which  the 
questions  suggest,  we  may  at  least  examine  some  of 
their  biological  aspects. 

The  physiology  of  reproduction  is  so  well  under- 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  223 

stood  that  the  regulation  of  the  size  of  human 
famihes  does  not  present  great  difficulties  where  the 
parents  are  fruitful.  Over  the  sex  of  children  there 
is,  at  present,  no  control,  despite  the  many  claims 
to  the  contrary.  All  attempts  to  influence  sex  after 
conception  has  occurred  are,  of  course,  quite  futile 
in  view  of  the  fact,  already  stated  with  sufficient 
clearness,  that  sex  is  determined  at  the  instant  of 
fertilization.  The  control  over  the  numbers  of  a 
family  is,  on  the  contrary,  considerable.  It  is 
naturally  much  easier  to  make  certain  of  having  a 
small  family  than  of  having  a  large  one.  Although 
it  is,  in  general,  true  that  during  the  intermenstrual 
period  there  are  a  few  days  during  which  conception 
seldom  occurs,  it  is  also  true  that  there  is  no  time 
between  puberty  and  the  menopause  at  which  impreg- 
nation may  not  occur  in  a  normal  woman.  So  it  is 
evident  that  while  there  is  usually  little  risk  of  con- 
ception during  some  intermenstrual  days,  this  does 
not  suffice  to  make  conjugation  without  an  element 
of  risk  of  impregnation.  So,  in  order  to  be  quite 
certain  that  there  will  be  no  additions  to  a  family, 
there  must  either  be  a  total  abstinence  from  sexual 
relations  or  a  resort  to  artificial  means  of  prevent- 
ing conception.  The  former  course  is  one  that  is  not 
Ukely  ever  to  be  looked  on  with  favor,  and  is,  in  fact, 
unreasonable.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  possible  to 
prevent  conception  by  artificial  methods  which  are 
not  open  to  objection  on  the  ground  of  endanger- 
ing physical  health.     Even  the  thought  of  resort  to 


224    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

such  methods  offends  the  sensitive  mind,  particularly 
if  unused  to  questions  of  this  sort,  but  it  quickly 
grows  obvious  that,  in  the  case  of  normally  fruitful 
couples,  there  are  only  two  alternatives.  The  first 
is  a  degree  of  sexual  continence,  which  is  for  most 
persons  impracticable.  The  other  is  the  risk  of 
having  a  larger  family  than  reasonable  prudence 
makes  desirable  —  a  family  so  large  as  to  be  an 
excessive  physical  tax  to  the  mother,  an  excessive 
tax  on  the  money  resources  of  the  father,  and, 
furthermore,  so  large  as  to  stand  in  the  way  of  the 
best  development  of  the  individuality  of  the  chil- 
dren. One  may  well  ask  whether,  in  general,  it  is 
not  wiser  to  employ  anticonceptual  methods  than 
to  bring  into  the  world  more  children  than  can  be 
decently  cared  for.  It  is,  of  course,  quite  impossible 
to  set  any  arbitrary  standard  for  the  number  of 
children  a  couple  may  prudently  attempt  to  rear, 
since  individual  standards  must  vary  widely.  All 
that  can  be  said  is  that  a  conscientious  effort  should 
be  made  to  steer  a  course  between  the  policy  of  a 
family  of  only  one  or  two  (a  policy  commonly  dic- 
tated by  excessive  monetary  prudence  or  erroneous 
social  aims)  and  the  laissez-faire  abandonment  which 
takes  no  heed  of  the  morrow  and  ends  in  a  regrettable 
lowering  of  physical,  psychical,  and  general  cultural 
standards.  It  is  noticeable  among  cultivated  per- 
sons that  they  are  willing  to  approve  of  large  families 
for  other  people,  leaving  little  margin  beyond  decent 
housing,  clothing,  and  diet,  and  ordinary  chances  of 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  225 

education.  But  if  we  ask  these  very  people  whether 
they  would  be  willing  to  attempt  the  rearing  of  a 
family  under  such  pinched  conditions,  they  will 
generally  give  a  negative  answer.  This  clearly 
because  cultivation  brings  aesthetic  and  educational 
needs  which  require  larger  financial  resources  for 
their  satisfaction. 

But  the  question  of  the  size  of  the  family  cannot  be 
settled  from  the  standpoint  of  the  individual  family 
alone.  There  is  a  far  broader  point  of  view  which 
must  be  kept  in  mind  —  the  effect  of  the  size  of  the 
family  on  the  general  welfare  of  the  state.  And  it  is 
just  at  this  point  that  the  question  becomes  extremely 
complicated.  It  is  relatively  simple  for  a  given 
couple  to  decide  that  they  cannot  wisely  undertake 
to  rear  more  than  three  or  four  or  five  children.  To 
be  sure,  it  is  true  that  in  so  limiting  the  family  there 
is  a  somewhat  arbitrary  exclusion  of  other  possible 
children  who  might  have  exceptional  talents.  Yet 
this  is  a  vague  possibility  in  which  the  world  will 
probably  never  greatly  interest  itself;  and  we  may 
conclude  that  the  arbitrary  limitation  just  suggested 
is,  from  the  standpoint  of  the  parents  and  family, 
both  legitimate  and  prudent  in  a  praiseworthy  sense. 
But  what  shall  we  say  of  this  policy  in  its  relation  to 
the  state  ? 

The  first  consideration  that  strikes  us  is  that  the 
people  most  likely  to  limit  their  families  in  a  legiti- 
mate and  intelligent  way  —  from  the  standpoint 
of  the  family  itself  —  are  just  those  who  are  the  most 


226   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

enlightened  and  most  desirable  members  of  the 
community ;  and,  furthermore,  that  the  exact  con- 
verse of  this  is  also  true,  that  the  most  reckless  repro- 
duction is  to  be  looked  for  among  the  least  educated 
and  poorest  classes.  The  effect  of  this  tendency  is, 
of  course,  just  the  opposite  of  what  is  most  needed, 
and  is  restrictive  of  the  best  elements  of  the  popula- 
tion while  placing  no  restraint  whatever  on  the  mul- 
tiplication of  the  least  intelligent  and  poorest  people. 
There  is  evidence  that  this  tendency  is  actually 
operative  to-day  in  the  United  States.  Here  the 
conditions  are  now  distinctly  antagonistic  to  any 
restrictions  among  the  lowest  classes,  and  are  likely 
to  remain  so  while  so  much  territory  remains  under- 
populated, in  the  sense  that  it  holds  natural  resources 
able  to  give  profitable  occupation  to  large  numbers 
of  unskilled  laborers.  Probably  the  only  way  to 
induce  the  lower  classes  to  limit  their  families  is  to 
educate  them  to  higher  standards  of  living  by  arous- 
ing better  ideals  of  attainment  and  of  comfort  for 
their  children.  But  how  is  this  to  be  done  when  there 
is  such  a  demand  for  cheap  labor  as  exists  to-day  in 
the  United  States  ? 

For  my  own  part,  I  own  to  a  leaning  in  the  direc- 
tion of  considering  the  quality  as  well  as  the  numbers 
of  our  community.  One  cannot  help  suspecting  that 
the  interests  of  the  country  and  of  the  race  would  be 
better  served  by  striving  to  elevate  the  ideals  and 
attainments  of  the  laboring  classes  than  by  encourag- 
ing the  mere  increase  of  their  numbers  as  is  so  largely 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  227 

now  the  case.  The  desire  to  gain  wealth  is  so  great 
that  we  see  about  us  a  feverish  eagerness  to  develop 
the  resources  of  the  country,  and  far  too  little  regard 
for  the  state  of  culture  of  the  human  organisms 
operating  as  the  agents  in  this  extension.  This  is 
doubtless  the  natural  policy  for  a  relatively  new 
country,  but  it  is  a  thoughtless  one,  and  one  fraught 
with  danger  to  the  state  if  allowed  to  dominate 
unrestrainedly.  The  danger  is  that  which  threatens 
every  community  that  allows  a  large  untutored 
and  undisciplined  element  to  arise  in  its  midst.  In 
times  of  prosperity  and  extension  this  element  may 
be  relatively  governable,  but  in  times  of  stagnation 
it  will  easily  be  led  by  the  appeals  of  demagogues 
toward  acts  of  violence  and  disorganization,  which 
block  real  progress  by  provoking  reactionary  senti- 
ments in  a  large  part  of  the  conununity. 

In  the  case  of  a  country  like  the  United  States 
which  has  a  large  and  wealthy  population  as  com- 
pared with  other  world  powers,  and  which,  owing  to 
its  geographical  position,  is  largely  protected  from 
the  attacks  of  militant  states,  the  problem  of  popu- 
lation seems  relatively  simple,  at  least  in  so  far  as 
ideals  are  concerned.  For  such  a  country  it  is  a 
mistake  to  encourage  an  increasing  population  of 
unskilled  labor,  however  great  its  resources  may  be 
in  mineral  and  agricultural  wealth.  Far  preferable 
would  be  a  poUcy  which  should  have  for  its  object 
the  restriction  of  the  lowest  class  of  labor  to  the 
needs  of  a  moderate  material  development.    Such 


228   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

a  course  would  tend  to  secure  an  increased  propor- 
tion of  skilled  labor;  that  is,  of  labor  capable  of 
creating  a  larger  per  capita  yield  of  wealth.  But 
this  is  only  another  way  of  saying  that  a  share  of 
leisure  time  would  be  placed  at  the  disposal  of 
people  who  now  have  none.  Such  a  change  marks 
the  most  significant  of  all  steps  toward  social  better- 
ment. It  does  not  follow  that  the  newly  acquired 
leisure  would  be  at  first  well  used.  Doubtless  much 
of  it  would,  in  the  beginning,  be  wasted  and  abused. 
But  here  at  least  would  be  that  opportunity  for 
improvement  without  which  no  nation  can  advance 
in  general  culture  and  ideals.  Time  and  experimen- 
tation would  afford  the  chance  to  use  this  leisure  for 
better  and  better  purposes,  for  thought,  for  the  en- 
joyment of  society,  and  for  legitimate  amusement. 
It  is  exactly  at  this  stage,  at  the  period  of  awakening 
interest  and  desire  for  self-betterment  and  family 
betterment,  that  the  ability  to  control  the  size  of 
the  family  becomes  an  asset  of  incalculable  value. 
Where  the  margin  of  income  above  actual  needs  is 
small,  it  makes  an  enormous  difference  for  the  out- 
look of  a  family  —  educationally  and  socially  — 
whether  there  are  two  or  three  children  to  rear,  or 
six.  The  smaller  number  is  compatible  with  rea- 
sonable educational  opportunities  and  a  degree  of 
comfort  which  wards  off  discouragements  of  the 
struggle  with  outspoken  poverty.  The  larger  num- 
ber almost  surely  means  neglect  of  some  of  the  chil- 
dren, and  the  depression  of  the  prospects  of  all. 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  229 

These  considerations  show  clearly,  I  think,  that 
those  who  are  most  influential  in  the  control  of  the 
destinies  of  our  people  should,  on  the  one  hand, 
encourage  and  stimulate  them  to  leave  the  ranks  of 
unskilled  labor,  and  to  enter  those  of  skilled  produc- 
tion, while,  on  the  other,  they  teach  them  the  im- 
mense importance  of  being  able  to  regulate  the  size 
of  their  families.  These  two  aims,  when  once  their 
combined  influence  is  understood,  must  prove  po- 
tent measures  of  elevation  for  the  lowest  classes.  It 
may  be  objected  that  it  is  impracticable  materially 
to  facilitate  the  entry  of  the  unskilled  laborer  into 
the  class  of  the  skilled  workman.  The  more  careful 
examination  of  this  question  is  one  which  must  be 
postponed  to  a  later  chapter,  and  the  subject  may 
be  dismissed  for  the  present  with  the  remark  that 
the  contention  just  now  —  that  the  unskilled  can  be 
developed  in  order  to  swell  the  ranks  of  the  skilled  — 
is  based  on  the  proposition  that  increased  produc- 
tion of  wealth  per  capita  is  certain  to  follow  the 
wider  extension  of  those  scientific  methods  of  pro- 
duction which  modern  inventiveness  has  placed  in 
our  hands.  The  only  real  obstacle  to  the  reahza- 
tion  of  a  greater  per  capita  income,  following  an 
advance  in  skill,  is  the  extensive  exploitation  of  la- 
bor by  capital,  which,  in  the  absence  of  intelligent 
legislation,  might  result  in  the  diversion  from  the 
skilled  workman  of  a  larger  portion  of  the  increment 
dependent  on  his  skill  than  could  be  considered  fair. 

The  regulation  of  population  is  a  still  more  compH- 


230    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

cated  question  in  a  country  threatened  by  a  militant 
enemy  of  approximately  equal  efficiency  in  war. 
In  such  a  case,  the  control  of  reproduction  has  to  be 
considered  not  merely  from  the  standpoint  of  the 
family,  and  of  the  nation,  but  in  its  international 
bearings.  It  is  well  known  that  the  population  of 
France  has  remained  nearly  stationary  during  a 
number  of  years,  while  that  of  Germany,  her  most 
dangerous  neighbor,  has  considerably  increased. 
The  small  families  of  the  French  appear  to  be  due  to 
artificial  regulation  of  the  reproduction  practiced 
from  a  desire  for  the  maintenance  of  a  fairly  high 
standard  of  personal  comfort.  It  seems  as  if  this 
policy  had  been  carried  too  far  for  the  good  of  the 
country  as  a  whole.  For,  in  this  case,  the  danger  of 
military  aggression  from  adjacent  countries  is  doubt- 
less somewhat  increased  by  a  pohcy  that  is  relatively 
weakening.  But  this  is  not  the  sole  objection  to 
the  French  policy  with  regard  to  reproduction.  It 
seems  as  if  the  limitation  of  the  size  of  famihes  is 
influenced  much  more  by  the  mere  desire  for  comfort 
—  largely  by  selfish  motives  —  than  by  the  wish  to 
give  better  opportunities  for  the  culture  and  efficiency 
of  the  children.  If  this  be  true,  is  it  not  likely  that 
in  time  France  must  lose  prestige  in  many  directions 
by  a  continuation  of  a  restrictive  poUcy  founded  too 
largely  on  selfish  motives  ?  This  example  of  restric- 
tion of  family  thus  appears  to  show  that  here  limi- 
tation is  not  necessarily  wholly  beneficial.  It  is  the 
combination  with  the  desire  for  improvement,  and 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  231 

this  alone,  which  gives  a  biological  sanction  to  the 
interference  with  natural  tendencies  in  population. 

The  case  of  large  countries  with  a  swarming  popu- 
lation and  low  standards  of  Uving  must  also  be  con- 
sidered in  estimating  the  effects  of  small  famiUes  in 
more  highly  civihzed  neighboring  countries.  The 
''yellow  peril"  which  threatens  Europe  has  loomed 
large  for  many  a  generation.  Will  the  Chinese  try 
to  invade  the  western  strongholds  of  civihzation? 
And  if  so,  can  their  numberless  hordes  be  success- 
fully checked  by  the  inferior  numbers  of  the  more 
cultured  nations?  Every  one  is  entitled  to  a  pre- 
diction on  these  momentous  possibiUties,  but  it  is 
doubtful  if  the  greatest  living  statesmen  have  at 
command  the  data  to  enable  them  to  make  predic- 
tions worthy  of  credence.  It  is  likely  that  the 
risks  of  Mongolian  invasion  have  been  considerably 
exaggerated.  The  nations  of  the  West,  though 
inferior  in  numbers,  have  a  relatively  high  level  of 
inteUigence,  far  more  imagination,  and  an  incom- 
parably greater  capacity  for  rapid  adaptation  to 
new  conditions.  These  are  qualities  which  must 
powerfully  influence  the  outcome  in  any  conflict  be- 
tween the  highly  organized  and  discipUned  forces  of 
the  West  and  the  heterogenous  hordes  of  Cathay. 

But  it  is  quite  aside  from  the  purpose  of  this 
chapter  to  speculate  on  the  international  aspects  of 
the  question  of  human  population.  I  wish  merely 
to  indicate  that  there  are  important  international 
phases  of  the  question  which  may  perhaps  modify 


232   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

conclusions  drawn  from  its  national  and  family  side. 
The  fact  which  emerges  clearly  in  the  midst  of  con- 
flicting considerations  is  that,  so  far  as  individual 
families  are  concerned,  an  intelligent  restriction  of 
family  looking  to  the  improved  education  of  its  mem- 
bers is  strongly  to  be  desired  as  a  step  —  and  prob- 
ably an  essential  step  —  toward  the  legitimate  indi- 
vidualistic development  which  must  precede  or 
accompany  improved  social  ideals  and  practices. 
The  control  of  the  size  of  the  family,  in  the  sense 
already  discussed,  is  largely  practicable.  It  is  one 
thing,  however,  to  know  that  this  regulation  is  possi- 
ble and  desirable ;  quite  another  to  introduce  it  into 
intelligent  practice.  Nevertheless,  if  the  biological 
and  sociological  aspects  of  the  problem  of  regulation 
should  once  become  generally  understood,  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  think  that  intelligent  regulation  would 
slowly  —  very  slowly  —  come  into  operation  among 
many  more  persons  than  is  at  present  the  case.  The 
aim  of  restricting  the  families  of  the  poorest  workers 
should,  of  course,  be  bound  with  the  aim  of  encour- 
aging a  generous  fruitfulness  among  the  middle  and 
upper  classes  of  society.  It  is  especially  among  the 
very  rich  that  serious  difficulties  would  be  encoun- 
tered, for  here  we  meet  frequently  with  aims  which 
seldom  take  root  among  persons  of  moderate  means 
—  aristocratic  views  of  life  which  demand  large 
estates,  great  houses  and  equipages,  private  galleries, 
yachts,  etc.,  for  their  satisfaction.  But  even  in 
these  not  very  promising  cases  education  must  ulti- 


SEX  AND  SOCIAL  RELATIONS  233 

mately  do  something  to  make  the  love  of  accompUsh- 
ment  supersede  in  a  measure  the  love  of  mere  life- 
less things,  to  make  dynamic  ideals  displace  static 
ones.  The  desire  for  large  and  capable  families, 
able  to  make  a  mark  on  the  events  of  the  day,  — 
able  to  promote  the  welfare  of  society, — must  inevi- 
tably form  a  part  of  this  better  appreciation  of  the 
dynamic  ideals  of  civilization. 

The  sexual  instinct  is  a  topic  of  almost  inexhaus- 
tible variety  and  interest,  and  its  discussion  might  be 
almost  indefinitely  extended.  But  for  the  purpose 
of  this  essay  enough  has  been  said  to  show  how  this 
instinct,  protean  in  its  manifestations  and  frequently 
veiled  by  other  feelings  and  emotions,  must  enter, 
prominently  at  times,  into  the  life  of  nearly  every 
natural  and  normal  human  being.  While  it  is  clearly 
in  the  interest  of  culture  that  this  instinct  should 
disport  itself  healthfully  within  limits  not  quite 
clearly  definable  and  varying  with  temperament 
and  many  a  circumstance,  it  is  incontrovertible  that 
trifling  with  the  impulses  of  sex  is  perilous  beyond  the 
understanding  of  the  vulgar  imagination.  Inter- 
woven as  are  these  impulses  with  all  the  vital  tissues 
of  thought,  feeling,  and  motive,  their  thoughtless 
exploitation  is  capable  of  bringing  disorder  and 
degeneration  in  a  hundred  ways.  That  such  mis- 
takes are  often  pardoned  by  nature  is  certain ;  but 
it  is  equally  sure  that  she  exacts  large  and  even  fatal 
penalties  from  many  an  imprudent  devotee  at  Venus's 
shrine.     Here,  indeed,  is  one  of  the  important  ways 


234   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

of  eliminating  from  the  world,  through  the  operation 
of  natural  selection)- innumerable  individuals  whose 
faults  are  those  which  are  so  readily  grafted  on  un- 
stable nervous  systems  which  have  never  learned 
the  art  of  inhibition.  So  quietly  does  the  process  of 
exclusion  go  on,  so  little  obvious  may  be  the  sexual 
basis  of  this  exclusion,  that  the  selective  process 
proceeds  for  the  most  part  without  the  definite  con- 
sciousness of  its  victims  —  who  often  derive  a  piti- 
ful satisfaction  from  imputing  to  accident  or  ill  luck, 
or  the  malice  of  providence,  those  misfortunes  which 
they  have  brought  upon  themselves.  Who  can  doubt 
that,  in  time,  when  the  perils  as  well  as  the  benefits 
of  the  great  gift  of  racial  instinct  are  seen  in  the  white 
light  of  biological  truth,  there  will  be  a  large  gain  in 
self-control  and  consequently  an  incalculable  saving 
of  human  misery  ? 


CHAPTER  X 

THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND 

Of  the  human  questions  that  are  always  before  us, 
few  are  more  elusive  than  the  precise  nature  of  the 
differences  between  the  male  and  the  female  mind. 
That  psychical  differences  do  exist  between  the  sexes 
of  the  same  race  has  long  been  apparent,  and  the 
widespread  interest  in  them  is  reflected  in  the  litera- 
ture of  fiction  and  the  conversations  alike  of  every- 
day life  and  of  polite  society.  The  subject  is  one 
about  which  nearly  every  mature  or  half-grown  per- 
son has  views.  These  views  are  based  on  a  limited 
and  casual  observation  of  people  with  whom  there  are 
family  associations,  of  the  contacts  of  friendship  or 
business.  Usually  it  is  the  intimate  ties  of  family 
life  that  determine  individual  opinion  as  to  differ- 
ences between  masculine  and  feminine  qualities.  The 
father  of  the  family  forms  his  judgment  largely  of  femi- 
nine nature  from  observation  of  wife,  mother,  sisters, 
daughters,  perhaps  also  of  a  few  women  friends.  I 
believe  the  philosopher  and  the  psychologist  does 
exactly  the  same  thing  —  forms  his  judgments  on 
an  extremely  limited  number  of  individuals.  The 
experimental  psychologist  may  measure  the  reaction 
time  of  a  larger  group  of  women  and  a  larger  group  of 

235 


236     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

men,  but  these  studies  do  not  take  him  far  below  the 
surface  of  the  problem,  and  his  published  opinions  of 
women  will  be  almost  surely  based  on  the  general 
view  of  them  which  he  has  formed  from  an  intimate 
acquaintance  with  his  wife.  If  he  is  an  unmarried 
man  and  has  never  had  a  mistress,  his  views  on  the 
comparative  psychology  of  man  and  woman  will 
necessarily  be  of  an  unreliable  nature  and  liable  to 
smack  of  the  pedantries  of  science. 

There  is,  in  reality,  nothing  surprising  about  our 
ignorance  of  the  actual  psychology  of  man  and 
woman.  The  bare  fact  is  that  the  attempt  to  point 
out  the  differences  between  the  masculine  and  the 
feminine  mind  is  a  resort  to  that  comparative  method 
in  science  which  always  serves  so  well  to  expose  the 
hmits  of  our  knowledge.  In  this  case,  it  convincingly 
shows  us  how  scant  is  our  real  acquaintance  with  the 
psychology  of  the  most  fundamental  instincts.  Why 
should  we  deceive  ourselves  into  the  belief  that  it 
is  otherwise?  When  we  consider  the  unparalleled 
complexity  of  cerebral  structure  and  the  short  time 
that  we  have  known  even  the  most  elementary  forces 
in  chemical  and  physical  science,  what  reason  have 
we  to  think  that  even  the  most  accessible  functions 
of  the  brain  should  have  been  solved? 

The  appeals  which  have  been  made  to  anatomy 
and  to  physiology  for  the  solution  of  this  question 
have  been,  in  my  judgment,  about  equally  fatuous. 
From  anatomy  we  learn  that  the  female  cerebrum 
appears  to  be  a  little  smaller,  on  the  average,  than  in 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND        237 

man,  even  making  allowance  for  the  difference  in  the 
weights  of  the  entire  body.  We  learn  also  that  the 
frontal  lobes  (admittedly  the  main  seat  of  mental 
activity)  bear  about  the  same  relative  proportion  to 
the  rest  of  the  cerebral  hemispheres  in  women  as  in 
men.  Meinert,  Mercier,  and  others  hold  that  the 
frontal  region  in  women  is  relatively  a  httle  less 
developed  than  in  men,  but  Professor  Mall  tells  me 
that  he  has  found  the  area  of  the  frontal  region  in 
women  to  bear  just  the  same  relation  to  the  remain- 
ing areas  of  the  hemispheres  as  in  men.  I  am  unable 
to  see  that  the  data  available  from  anatomical  studies 
of  this  kind  throw  any  real  light  on  the  psychology 
of  men  and  women.  The  difference  of  organization 
between  the  male  and  the  female  brain  must  lie 
mainly  in  variations  in  the  representation  of  different 
functional  regions  and  in  consequent  variations  in  the 
arrangements  and  connections  of  the  numerous  types 
of  nerve  cells  that  are  concerned  with  consciousness. 
To  expect  to  gain  any  insight  into  these  intricate 
structural  arrangements  by  gross  observations  on 
brain  weights  is  mere  folly.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
best  methods  of  investigation  now  open  to  us  are  so 
difficult  and  laborious,  so  inadequate  in  comparison 
with  the  problem  to  be  solved,  that  it  is  no  reflection 
on  anatomical  science  that  it  has  not  essayed  really 
fundamental  researches  into  the  fine  structural 
differences  that  probably  determine  the  divergences 
in  the  psychical  characters  of  men  and  women. 
Indeed,  the  failure  to  make  serious  trials  in  this  field 


238    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

is  at  once  a  tribute  to  the  intelligence  of  anatomical 
investigators,  and  a  recognition  of  the  transcendent 
intricacies  that  inhere  in  profound  studies  directed 
toward  the  most  elaborately  organized  of  all  struc- 
tures. The  methods  of  physiology  appear  to  me 
almost  equally  ineffective  for  dealing  with  the  highest 
cerebral  functions.  They  have  failed  to  give  us  any 
satisfactory  conception  of  the  differences  between  the 
sleeping  and  the  waking  brain,  or  of  the  nature  of  the 
nervous  energies  which  are  concerned  with  sensory 
and  motor  functions.  How,  then,  can  wetexpect  from 
physiology  a  solution  of  the  question  of  sex  differ- 
ences as  manifested  in  psychic  activity?  Psycho- 
logical measurements  reveal  some  facts  of  interest, 
yet  impinge  but  lightly  on  the  essential  problem. 

So  we  find  ourselves  in  a  position  where  we  have 
to  rely  mainly  on  empirical  observations,  making  the 
frank  admission  that  the  differences  which  we  discern, 
or  fancy  we  discern,  cannot  at  present  be  subjected 
to  satisfying  biological  analysis,  and  feeling  that 
great  advances  in  method  will  be  necessary  before 
we  can  hope  for  true  progress. 

The  essential  differences  between  the  mental  life 
of  woman  and  that  of  man  apparently  depends  upon 
the  fact  that  the  cerebral  organization  represents 
and  reflects  the  various  aspects  of  the  sexual  func- 
tions, which  irradiate,  as  it  were,  into  the  brain. 
The  circumstance  that  the  body  of  the  mother 
nourishes  both  the  embryo  and  the  infant  brings 
her  into  an  organic  relationship  to  family  different 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND        239 

to  the  casual  relationship  of  the  male.  It  anchors 
her,  figuratively  speaking,  by  a  short  cable  to  the 
central  interest  of  family,  forcing  on  her  a  relatively 
sessile  life.  The  protection  to  the  child  given  by 
nature  leads  the  mother  to  continue  this  shielding 
action  in  many  ways  during  the  life  of  her  offspring. 
Through  such  association  the  mother  gains  an  ac- 
quaintance with  the  multiple  physical  and  mental 
needs  of  her  children,  unattainable  in  any  other  way. 
Maternity  is,  indeed,  the  natural  school  for  the  culti- 
vation of  affection,  sympathy,  tact,  self-sacrifice, 
patience,  and  the  quiet  endurance  of  physical  dis- 
comfort. The  pressing  nature  of  so  many  childish 
needs  gives  an  intense  practical  tendency  to  the 
interests  of  the  mother.  She  thus  comes  to  have 
regard  for  immediate  results  rather  than  remote 
ones,  for  details  rather  than  for  principles.  The 
close  contact  with  her  children  also  sensitizes  the 
mother  to  the  most  elementary  human  appeals.  It 
seems  as  if  such  reactivity  and  understanding  must 
render  sentiment  more  deUcate  and  discriminating 
than  in  man,  and  impart  to  it  a  greater  variety  of 
shading.  This  experienced  sensitiveness  to  the 
stimulus  of  human  appeal  is,  I  think,  the  basis  of  the 
element  of  charm  in  women.  The  same  labile  quahty 
exists  in  some  men  and  is  an  element  of  charm  in 
them  also,  especially  when  associated  wdth  intelli- 
gence and  forceful  character.  An  extremely  impor- 
tant feminine  characteristic  is  the  desire  for  definite 
expressions  of  affection.     The  need  for  such  expres- 


240    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

sions  is,  I  believe,  far  greater,  in  general,  in  women 
than  in  men.  Men,  preoccupied  with  the  active 
struggle  for  existence,  or  with  the  pursuit  of  a  creative 
ideal,  too  often  lose  sight  of  the  craving  for  affection 
which  is  inborn  in  their  wives. 

The  less  direct  attachment  of  the  male  to  his 
family  gives  him  the  wider  swing  which  brings 
greater  opportunity  to  explore  and  make  varied 
experiences  with  things  and  forces.  This  wider 
scope,  operating  through  an  incalculably  long  period 
of  evolutionary  activity,  may  well  afford  an  expla- 
nation of  the  greater  originality  of  men  in  meeting 
new  situations,  whether  practical  or  intellectual. 
The  larger  point  of  view,  the  better  faculty  of  dis- 
covery, the  superior  ability  to  make  new  combina- 
tions, give  to  men  a  self-confidence  and  a  pride  in 
achievement  which  is  more  developed  than  the  cor- 
responding attributes  of  women.  The  better  devel- 
oped male  sense  of  justice  in  respect  to  large  ques- 
tions, and  the  greater  willingness  to  take  risks  for 
the  sake  of  an  ideal,  are  probably  connected  with  the 
superior  capacity  for  correct  generalization  and  the 
greater  self-confidence.  The  sacrifices  and  suffering 
which  come  from  mistakes  in  economic  policy  fall 
with  special  severity  on  women  and  children. 
Women  have  thus  grown  conservative  as  to  social 
experiments.  Men,  on  the  other  hand,  often  over- 
confident in  their  own  judgments,  more  readily  make 
risky  experiments,  whether  in  good  or  in  bad  causes, 
and  this  willingness  may  be  attributable  in  part  to 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND        241 

the  relative  immunity  from  personal  suffering  after 
the  disastrous  outcome  of  such  experiments.  Energy 
of  performance  or  will  power,  as  it  is  cormnonly 
called,  cannot,  I  think,  be  compared  in  the  two 
sexes  without  the  risk  of  reaching  an  erroneous  con- 
clusion. It  is  a  faculty  eminently  difficult  to  judge. 
Men  seem  to  me  more  apt  to  parade  their  energy  of 
performance,  and  this  ordinarily  creates  the  impres- 
sion of  stronger  will ;  but  it  is  easy  to  underesti- 
mate the  quiet  determination  of  women.  Men  exert 
themselves  especially  to  gain  money  or  to  secure 
some  advantage  or  indulgence  for  themselves,  or  to 
create  a  product.  Women  have  much  less  insistence 
and  energy  of  performance  in  respect  to  creative 
work,  and  are  more  readily  diverted.  Forel  says 
that  women  have  somewhat  stronger  wills,  on  the 
whole,  than  men.  But,  of  course,  this  opinion  is 
only  of  value  as  the  impression  of  a  highly  intelligent 
and  experienced  scientific  observer  of  humanity  on 
its  psychological  side. 

The  greater  masculine  power  of  creative  imagina- 
tion finds  one  of  its  most  striking  expressions  in  the 
immensely  superior  achievements  of  man  in  poetry, 
music,  and  art,  for  in  these  fields  the  refined  sensi- 
bilities of  women  should  give  them  a  foothold,  and 
even  an  advantage  over  men.  Indeed,  if  we  compare 
the  average  man  and  woman,  or  even  highly  culti- 
vated men  and  women,  I  think  that  we  shall  find  no 
feminine  inferiority  in  respect  to  the  understanding 
or  rendering  of  music  and  poetry.     But  it  is  plain 


242    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

that  the  most  highly  creative  men  (an  extremely- 
small  group)  have  remarkably  excelled  the  most 
highly  creative  women  in  poetry,  music,  and  art. 
When  we  seek  the  explanation  for  this  inequality, 
we  come  face  to  face  with  one  of  the  most  difficult 
of  human  problems.  Does  the  superiority  of  the 
greatest  artists  arise  from  the  exceptional  oppor- 
tunities which  they  have  had  to  educate  themselves, 
or  does  it  arise  from  a  superiority  of  organization  in 
the  male,  consisting  in  a  more  richly  developed 
specific  mnemitic  heredity?  It  is  self-evident  that 
qualities  which  do  not  inhere  in  the  mneme,  owing  to 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  years  of  heredity,  cannot 
be  formed  in  a  few  generations,  no  matter  how  much 
education  is  available.  Even  if  we  tentatively  make 
the  large  admission  that  acquired  mental  characters 
are,  to  some  extent,  though  very  slowly,  inherited, 
education  cannot  equalize  the  sexes  in  respect  to  the 
qualities  which  are  characteristically  male  or  female. 
But  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  say  with  confidence 
what  traits  are  characteristically  male  or  female  by 
inheritance,  since  there  are  no  male  qualities  which 
the  female  may  not  exhibit  and  no  female  qualities 
which  the  male  may  not  exhibit.  The  peculiarly 
strong  and  tender  devotion  of  a  mother  for  very 
young  children  is,  perhaps,  the  most  distinct  of 
psychical  sexual  traits,  being  rarely  seen  in  the  male 
parent.  This  may  reasonably  be  interpreted  as  a 
quality  based  on  mnemic  heredity.  When  we  come 
to  deal  with  the  intellectual  and  emotional  qualities 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND        243 

which  enable  a  man  to  write  poetry  or  compose 
music  of  the  very  highest  grade,  it  is  extremely  risky 
to  form  a  definitive  judgment.  It  is  possible, 
though  by  no  means  certain,  that  this  superiority 
has  a  mnemic  origin,  or  depends  on  some  other  form 
of  superiority  in  respect  to  cerebral  organization. 
But  there  are  some  things  about  our  methods  of 
education  which  we  must  not  lose  sight  of  in  this 
connection.  Assuming  that,  in  a  given  community, 
there  is  an  equal  number  of  boys  and  girls  of  approxi- 
mately equal  gifts,  it  is  certain  that  a  far  larger  pro- 
portion of  the  boys  would  be  permitted  or  encouraged 
to  develop  their  powers  than  would  be  the  case  with 
the  girls.  The  boys  would  be  encouraged  by  con- 
ventional parents  to  make  a  fairly  free  use  of  their 
gifts,  and  their  irregularities  of  conduct  in  their  ef- 
forts to  choose  their  own  paths  would  be  pardoned 
them  on  the  ground  that  they  have  careers  before 
them.  But  the  girls  would  be  suppressed  at  every 
step,  and  the  ideal  of  gentleness  and  personal  attrac- 
tiveness would  be  continually  impressed  on  their 
minds,  thus  effectually  checking  or  diverting  their 
talents.  Under  such  conditions  it  would  not  be 
surprising  if  the  most  gifted  boys  made  a  better 
showing  in  creative  work  than  the  girls.  I  do  not 
say  that  this  is  the  explanation  of  the  disparity  be- 
tween the  most  gifted  men  and  the  most  gifted  women 
in  poetry,  music,  and  art.  Indeed,  I  believe  that  it 
cannot  be  the  full  explanation  of  the  difference.  But 
until  girls  and  women  generally  have  opportunities 


244    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

more  on  a  parity  with  those  of  boys  and  men  in 
respect  to  education,  it  will  be  impossible  to  esti- 
mate justly  the  degree  of  the  assumed  inherited 
disparity  between  men  and  women  in  the  high- 
est types  of  creative  endeavor  involving  an  aes- 
thetic factor. 

That  there  is  a  profound  difference  between  the 
attitude  of  men  and  women  toward  some  of  the  most 
important  questions  must  be  apparent  to  all  who  have 
taken  the  trouble  to  observe  and  think  on  the  sub- 
ject. Men  are,  it  would  seem,  much  more  deter- 
mined to  carry  on  creative  intellectual  pursuits  for 
the  sake  of  the  satisfaction  that  is  derivable  from 
such  activity.  When  women  are  engaged  in  occu- 
pations of  this  kind,  they  are  more  readily  turned 
aside  by  claims  of  family  or  friendship,  and  even  by 
less  excusable  distractions.  Whether  this  difference 
is  an  inherent  one,  or  one  due  mainly  to  educative 
and  conventional  habits  it  is  not  possible  to  say  with 
certainty,  but  we  may  suspect  that  there  is  an  inher- 
ent divergence  which  no  amount  of  education  can 
wipe  out.  We  have  to  remember,  in  comparing  the 
minds  of  man  and  woman,  that  the  intellectual 
superiority  of  man  is  only  apparent  among  the  highest 
types  of  the  race,  and  that  if  there  are  many  ineffec- 
tuals  among  women,  there  are  probably  quite  as 
many  among  men.  Among  educated  people,  in 
general,  it  is  difficult  to  discern  any  real  superiority, 
even  of  an  intellectual  kind,  on  the  part  of  men. 
There  is,  I  believe,  a  strong  tendency  to  lay  too  much 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND        245 

stress  on  the  intellectual  and  productive  superiority 
of  men  of  the  highest  capacity.  These  quaUties 
undoubtedly  count  for  very  much  in  the  world's 
progress  and  are  given  a  wide  celebrity.  But  it  is 
by  no  means  clear  that  the  fine  critical  and  human 
qualities  of  the  greatest  women  do  not  contribute 
quite  as  much  to  progress,  if  in  more  indirect  ways, 
and  with  less  pubUc  acclaim. 

Any  comparison  of  men  and  women,  from  the 
standpoint  of  their  importance  to  the  race,  must  be 
futile  if  it  aims  to  establish  a  general  superiority  on 
the  part  of  the  male.  And  it  seems  to  me  that 
natiu^e  relieves  us  from  the  necessity  for  making 
painful  academic  efforts  in  this  direction.  For  her 
indications,  as  we  read  them  to-day  with  the  help  of 
scientific  methods,  all  point  to  the  fact  that  in  the 
production  of  a  new  individual,  the  mother  and  the 
father  contribute  in  equal  degree  that  material  which 
is  the  bearer  of  hereditary  qualities.  In  the  equahty 
of  this  fusion  it  makes  no  difference  whether  the  new 
being  is  a  male  or  a  female.  In  either  case  each 
parent  gives  approximately  the  same  quantity  of 
nuclear  material.  The  mother,  indeed,  contributes 
the  larger  share  of  the  total  material  of  the  impreg- 
nated egg,  but  this  is  due  to  the  circumstance  that 
the  egg  has  material  surrounding  the  essential  nuclear 
substance.  This  enveloping  material  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  nutrient  pabulum,  and  not  as  the  carrier 
of  hereditary  potentiahties.  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
to  think  that  the  materials  furnished  by  the  female 


246    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

are  less  significant  in  function  than  those  coming 
from  the  male. 

It  is  not  merely  at  the  outset  of  life  that  this 
equality  of  contribution  to  the  new  campaign  is 
recognizable.  In  every  division  of  the  cell  the  new 
nuclei  continue  to  hold  equal  quantities  of  male  and 
female  substance.  So  that  finally,  in  the  adult  being, 
there  is  the  same  strict  equality  of  representation  as  at 
the  beginning.  If  we  believe  in  the  mechanistic  theory 
of  the  nature  of  living  organisms,  are  we  not  compelled 
to  admit  this  hint  of  essential  equality  in  male  and 
female?  How  is  it  possible  that  one  sex  should  be 
superior  to  the  other  in  any  natural  sense,  when  both 
male  and  female  are  in  equal  degree,  and  with  the 
utmost  mechanical  precision,  the  bearers  of  the 
heritage-laden  substance  from  each  parent  ?  When 
we  add  these  quite  definite  biological  indications  of 
equality  —  not  sameness  —  to  the  somewhat  less 
definite  indications  derived  from  the  consideration 
of  the  developed  human  male  and  female,  we  are  at 
a  loss  to  find  any  valid  reason  for  giving  to  the  male 
sex  a  position  of  superiority  in  political,  legal,  and 
financial  privileges.  The  disadvantages  under  which 
women  still  labor  are  largely  those  which  have  been 
forced  on  them  by  inconsiderate  men  as  the  result 
of  the  superior  brute  force  which  they  possess.  As 
ideas  of  justice  and  decency  grow,  mere  force  must 
gradually  count  for  less.  It  seems  entirely  clear  that 
in  Anglo-Saxon  countries  women  will  not  be  satisfied 
until  they  have  reached  a  status  of  equality  with 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND         247 

men  in  respect  to  political,  legal,  financial,  and  edu- 
cational privileges  and  opportunities.  Such  equality 
does  not  imply  that  identity  of  aim  will  follow.  It 
does  not  mean  that  women  will  try  to  equal  men  as 
surgeons,  as  practical  politicians,  or  as  stockbrokers. 
But  it  does  mean  that  the  removal  of  artificial  dis- 
abilities, mainly  born  of  masculine  selfishness  and 
feminine  helplessness,  will  give  to  one  half  the  popu- 
lation a  better  chance  for  the  development  of  per- 
sonality. A  gradual  change  in  this  direction  would 
accord  well  with  sound  ideals  of  human  progress  on 
biological  lines. 

The  sexes  differ  rather  widely  in  the  expression 
of  interest  and  affection  for  each  other,  and  conjuga- 
tion is  preceded  almost  universally  by  some  play  or 
sport  or  negotiation.  Indications  of  this  are  seen 
even  among  relatively  low  animals  in  which  gallantry 
comes  as  a  surprise.  The  dance  of  the  male  and 
female  scorpions,  claw  in  claw,  is  a  case  in  point. 
Among  birds  the  males  practice  coquetry  and  are 
endowed  with  superior  attractions  of  voice  and  plu- 
mage. In  mammals,  generally,  the  r61e  is  reversed, 
and  the  female  possesses  the  qualities  and  means  of 
attracting  the  male.  In  the  human  species  it  is 
with  few  exceptions  the  male  that  assumes  the  more 
active  role  of  seeking  his  mate,  but  modern  society 
has  developed  the  art  of  feminine  attraction  to  a 
remarkable  level  of  efficiency,  and  it  may  even  be 
said,  in  some  instances,  that  the  female  is  covertly, 
or  even  openly,  the  seeker.     In  general,  however,  the 


248    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

male  takes  the  initiative,  while  the  female  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  practices  the  art  of  coquetry 
which  presently  makes  so  strong  an  appeal  to  the 
masculine  personality. 

Perhaps  there  is  no  human  relationship  in  which 
both  innate  qualities  and  breeding  are  more  clearly 
exposed  than  during  courtship  and  its  attendant 
flirtatious  expressions.  The  element  of  sexual  attrac- 
tion normally  enters  into  this  relationship,  but  its 
prominence  varies  between  the  widest  limits,  and 
is  determined  much  more  by  temperamental  reac- 
tions than  by  the  grade  of  cultivation  or  social  posi- 
tion. If  a  disgustingly  active  animal  side  of  human 
nature  is  revealed  in  some  of  the  methods  and  pro- 
cesses of  flirtation  among  certain  types  of  people,  it 
is  equally  certain  that  there  is  a  highly  refined  play  of 
sex  and  intellect  which  distinguishes  the  amorous 
advances  of  other  sorts  of  men  and  women.  Instinc- 
tive feelings  and  reactions  play  a  very  large  part  in  the 
orientation  of  both  male  and  female  nervous  systems 
with  respect  to  the  meaning  of  the  advances  which 
are  made  and  the  extent  of  the  grossly  sexual  factor. 
Thus  women  with  discriminating  nervous  systems 
often  show  great  acumen  in  detecting  the  element  of 
coarseness  in  men,  or  the  existence  of  a  sexual  attrac- 
tion dissociated  from  affection  and  respect ;  and  this 
largely  intuitive  cognizance  may  become  the  basis 
of  strong  antipathies.  Some  men  also  have  a  partly 
or  wholly  intuitive  appreciation  of  the  dangers  that 
lurk  in  the  artful  ways  of  some  kinds  of  women,  and 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND        249 

though  perhaps  attracted  by  them,  are  able  to  make 
an  escape  before  committing  themselves.  Others  are 
less  fortunate  or,  perhaps  we  should  say,  less  gifted 
in  their  amorous  or  sexual  perceptions,  and  find 
themselves  linked  by  matrimonial  ties  to  women 
whose  main  attraction  has  been  their  coquetry. 
These  are,  of  course,  the  marriages  that  yield  the 
highest  percentages  of  divorces.  Men  are  perhaps, 
in  general,  not  so  well  fitted  as  women  to  steer  their 
way  safely  among  the  shoals  and  rocks  of  flirtation. 
The  advantage  of  women  in  this  direction  lies,  I 
think,  in  their  better  intuitive  responses  (or  to  ex- 
press it  in  physiological  terms,  in  their  more  correct 
nervous  reactions)  to  elementary  human  qualities  — 
an  advantage  which  may  have  its  basis  in  mnemic 
heredity.  The  egotism  and  self-confidence  of  men 
carry  with  them  many  Uttle  vanities  which  are  easily 
played  upon  by  clever  women,  determined  to  please, 
and  willing  to  stoop  to  conquer.  Men  of  affairs, 
who  have  learned  to  triumph  over  other  men,  are 
especially  prone  to  mistakes  in  dealing  with  the  fair 
sex.  Those  who  are  shy  by  nature  and  modest,  and 
have  had  little  chance  to  observe  women,  are  apt  to 
get  into  unfortunate  matrimonial  situations,  espe- 
cially if  they  readily  react  in  emotional  ways.  Great 
intelligence  does  not  protect  them,  as  the  somewhat 
pathetic  but  amusing  case  of  Abraham  Lincoln  clearly 
shows.  One  of  the  most  eminent  German  scientists, 
to  whom  mankind  owes  a  large  debt,  is  quite  under 
the  domination  of  a  wife  far  inferior  in  capacity,  who 


250    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

manages  him  by  the  most  clever  appeals  to  his  sense 
of  importance  and  by  a  thorough  understanding  of 
his  sensual  nature.  The  methods  by  which  women 
sometimes  play  on  the  weakness  of  strong  men  are 
truthfully  and  vividly  described  by  Thymian  in  her 
pathetic  ''Diary  of  a  Lost  Soul."  Men  and  women 
who  are  bent  on  illicit  sexual  gratification  are  often 
wonderfully  acute  and  quick  in  singling  out  likely  and 
congenial  partners.  There  seems  to  be,  indeed,  a 
veritable  art  of  seduction,  and  a  cynical  writer  has 
said  that  the  successful  seducer,  like  the  poet,  must 
be  born.  While  the  knowledge  that  such  traits  ex- 
ist, not  very  rarely,  is  unpleasant,  the  fact  must  be 
regarded  simply  as  a  natural  phenomenon  represent- 
ing an  extreme  phase  of  a  natural  and  legitimate 
instinct.  The  absence  of  sexual  feeling,  and  the 
complete  lack  of  any  instinct  to  flirt  in  legitimate 
and  decent  ways,  is  certainly  not  to  be  counted  a 
virtue.  The  play  and  sparkle  of  wit  and  merriment 
which  is  provoked  by  the  admiration  or  liking  of  one 
person  for  another  of  opposite  sex  are  among  the  most 
charming  and  delightful  of  human  experiences ;  and 
among  intellectual  and  cultivated  people  of  artistic 
temperament  a  moderate  indulgence  in  this  kind  of 
play  may  develop  into  an  art  which  is  not  to  be 
scorned.  Based  as  it  is  on  the  employment  of  re- 
ciprocal male  and  female  psychical  qualities,  —  and 
in  this  sense  sexual  in  origin  —  it  is  absolutely  de- 
void of  grossness.  I  think  it  true  that  this  kind  of 
attraction  is  of  great  importance  and  benefit  in  its 


THE  MALE  AND  THE  FEMALE  MIND        251 

effects.  When  it  is  founded  on  the  reciprocal 
recognition  of  congenial  traits,  it  may  lead  to  mar- 
riages based  on  an  element  which  has  much  to  do  with 
securing  the  permanence  and  agreeableness  of  human 
ties.  The  happiest  marriages  are  undoubtedly  those 
in  which  an  element  of  romance  is  a  permanent 
feature.  The  full  force  of  sexual  charm  and  love, 
devoid  of  sensuality,  is  one  of  the  most  powerful 
influences  in  hfe.  It  is  a  power  which  makes  for 
gentleness,  consideration,  and  self-sacrifice  and,  in- 
deed, for  better  ideals  generally.  It  is  strengthened 
by  the  possession  of  children,  but  may  exist  without 
them.  It  may  also  exist  for  a  lifetime  between 
unmarried  people,  whose  affection  never  has  been 
based  on  anything  approaching  the  sensual  side  of 
sexual  instinct.  It  is,  I  believe,  a  power  of  the  first 
importance  for  the  elevation  of  the  race.  But  in  its 
most  ideal  forms  it  has  probably  hitherto  come 
within  the  experience  of  relatively  few  human  beings. 
It  seems  not  unUkely  that  this  higher  sort  of  affection 
between  the  sexes  is  destined  to  become  more  diffused 
as  the  races  meliorate,  and  that  it  will  one  day  be- 
come a  far  greater  force  in  the  general  uplift  than  it 
is  to-day. 


BOOK  IV.    THE  FUNDAMENTAL  INSTINCTS 
IN  THEIR  RELATION  TO  HUMAN 
DEVELOPMENT 

CHAPTER  XI 

THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION 

The  following  discussion  is  based  on  the  view, 
developed  in  preceding  chapters,  that  all  animals, 
including  man,  are  literally  automata;  that  is, 
machines  whose  conduct  exactly  reflects  their  physi- 
cal organization.  This  view  does  not  overlook  the 
difficulty  of  accounting  for  animal  evolution  on  the 
ground  of  existing  scientific  knowledge;  but  it 
assumes  that,  given  the  developed  machine,  the 
hypothesis  of  automatism,  in  the  most  complete 
form,  accounts  for  the  facts  of  animal  life  better 
than  any  other.  And  it  not  only  endeavors  to 
account  for  the  most  obvious  and  grossly  mechanical 
functions  of  the  organism,  such  as  the  circulation  of 
the  blood,  the  mode  of  locomotion,  or  the  formation 
of  images  on  the  retina,  but  also  sees  in  organiza- 
tion the  full  cause  of  conduct  in  its  most  varied 
phases,  and  the  basis  of  all  kinds  of  mental  processes 
and  emotional  and  ethical  reactions.  Human  con- 
duct on  this  hypothesis  is  the  extremely  intimate 
and  elaborate  train  of  nervous  reactions  that  ex- 

252 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  253 

presses  the  felt-like  interaction  of  environmental 
forces  with  the  forces  pertaining  to  organized  proto- 
plasm. That  such  an  hypothesis  must  at  present 
content  itself  with  supports  mainly  of  a  very  general 
character  is  only  a  form  of  admission  that  we  are 
still  profoundly  ignorant  of  the  subtle  processes  that 
hold  sway  in  the  substance  of  the  nervous  mechanism. 
The  progress  of  investigation  can  be  counted  on  to  do 
something  toward  making  this  extreme  materialistic 
or  mechanical  hypothesis  either  more  reasonably 
tenable  than  now  or  less  so.  It  is  put  forward  here 
because  it  appears  to  me  more  legitimate  at  present 
than  any  other,  and  better  adapted  to  stimulate 
research  and  to  promote  kindly  human  relations. 

What  most  deeply  interests  the  student  of  human 
affairs  is  to  gain  some  vantage  ground,  or  point  of 
view,  from  which  he  may  venture  to  predict  the 
tendencies  of  human  development.  Is  the  race  to 
improve,  according  to  our  present-day  best  standards 
of  what  is  desirable,  or  is  it  to  degenerate  ?  Or  will 
it  improve  in  some  directions  and  deteriorate  in 
others  ?  What  would  we  not  give  for  a  glimpse  into 
the  future  which  should  give  us  substantial  knowl- 
edge of  the  outcome  ?  As  it  is,  we  are  constrained, 
with  limited  and  halting  powers  of  imagination,  to 
picture  the  future  with  the  help  of  grossly  imperfect 
knowledge  of  present  conditions,  and  an  even  more 
inadequate  understanding  of  the  past. 

From  the  standpoint  of  our  mechanistic  conception 
the  future  of  any  race  will  express  the  behavior  or 


254    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

reaction  of  its  protoplasm  —  and  mainly  its  nervous 
protoplasm  —  toward  the  environmental  forces  which 
serially  impinge  on  it.  If  the  impinging  forces  of 
environment  are  at  present  so  numerous,  so  com- 
plexly interwoven,  that  we  imperfectly  comprehend 
them,  what  right  have  we  to  talk  of  their  future 
effects,  in  the  presence  of  an  undeniable  tendency  to 
still  further  comphcation  of  forces?  And  correl- 
atively,  if  we  know  so  little  of  the  basic  forces  of 
protoplasm  and  the  memories  engraven  there,  how 
shall  we  presume  to  predict  the  future  properties 
and  reactions  of  this  inexplicable  maze  of  material  ? 
Discouraging  as  is  any  truly  scientific  approach  to 
the  prediction  of  human  developmental  tendency,  it 
does  no  harm  to  realize  the  nature  of  the  difficulties, 
even  though  such  realization  serves  no  other  purpose 
than  that  of  preventing  us  from  being  too  exacting 
in  our  prophetic  demands. 

I  propose  to  consider  here,  in  a  brief  way,  the 
various  types  of  human  nervous  reaction  with  which 
we  are  acquainted,  in  their  relation  to  human  develop- 
ment. Empirical  experience  must  be  our  main  guide 
in  this  endeavor  —  and,  strictly  speaking,  most  of 
what  we  know  of  biology  may  without  injustice  be 
classed  as  empirical  knowledge.  As  already  pointed 
out  repeatedly,  the  fundamental  nervous  reactions 
in  man,  as  in  lower  animals,  are  only  two  in  number: 
the  self-preservative  and  the  sexual.  While  these 
distinct  reactions  subserve  quite  distinct  though 
harmonious  biological  ends,  the  reactions  are  linked 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  255 

to  each  other  in  many  ways.  Moreover,  these  reac- 
tions and  the  instincts  which  they  express  are  bound 
closely  to  certain  derived  reactions.  And  these 
reactions  are,  in  turn,  so  closely  bound,  and  indeed 
overlap  in  so  many  ways,  that  the  undertaking  of 
separating  them  for  separate  discussion  is  an  arbi- 
trary one.  Nevertheless,  it  is  profitable  to  think  of 
the  derived  or  secondary  nervous  reactions  in  their 
bearing  upon  the  acquisition  of  knowledge,  on  the 
growth  of  aesthetic  experience,  and  on  the  develop- 
ment of  ethical  qualities.  That  the  growth  of  these 
derived  reactions  is  destined  to  afifect  profoundly  the 
parent  reactions  from  which  they  sprang  —  the  sur- 
vival and  sexual  instincts  —  seems  an  obvious  conclu- 
sion, and  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  this 
reflected  influence  must  profoundly  modify  human 
conduct. 

I 
Art,  the  skilled  expression  of  beauty  through 
human  agency,  stands  in  close  and  relatively  obvious 
and  tangible  relation  to  biology,  because  it  is  medi- 
ated very  definitely  by  specific  and  known  nervous 
mechanisms.  The  relation  of  the  optic  or  second 
cranial  nerves  to  painting,  sculpture,  and  architecture 
is  similar  to  the  relation  of  the  acoustic  or  fifth 
cranial  nerves  to  music.  In  each  case  the  artistic 
product  is  in  part  based  on  the  function  of  the 
analytical  and  representative  powers  of  special  sense 
organs.  Other  sensory  cranial  nerves  fall  far  below 
the  optic  and  acoustic  in  analytical  faculty.    The 


256    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

first  or  olfactory,  the  nerve  of  smell,  is  atrophic  in 
man  and  can  subserve  no  creative  art,  although  in 
dogs  it  is  the  basis  of  wonderful  feats  of  scent,  and 
even  in  man  may  subserve  purposes  compounded 
of  useful  and  aesthetic  qualities.  The  fifth  and 
ninth  nerves  also  supplying  the  sensations  of  taste, 
although  susceptible  of  a  training  which  permits 
a  high  degree  of  sensory  discrimination,  e.  g.  it  is 
shown  in  the  tea-taster's  art,  hardly  rise  to  the  dig- 
nity of  subserving  a  productive  art. 

The  sensory  cranial  nerves  and  their  central 
connections,  however,  are  not  the  sole  basis  of  the 
expression  of  the  beautiful,  for  in  the  muscular  sense 
and  the  joint  sensations,  based  on  nerves  of  general 
rather  than  special  sense,  we  see  the  basis  of  a  primi- 
tive and  exquisite  art,  the  art  of  dancing.  This 
art,  perhaps  the  simplest  and  most  generally  intelli- 
gible, owes  its  general  character  in  part  to  the  wide 
distribution  and  nonspecific  nature  of  the  nervous 
mechanisms  on  which  it  depends,  and  in  part  to  the 
noteworthy  fact  that  both  time  and  space  relations 
are  equally  prominent  in  its  expression.  But  as  the 
muscular  and  joint  nerves  have  no  distance  receptors, 
i.e.  no  mechanism  for  establishing  contacts  with  phe- 
nomena at  a  distance  from  the  body,  the  dancing 
art  is  greatly  limited  in  content  and  meaning,  as 
compared  with  painting  and  music. 

The  nerves  of  smell,  of  taste,  and  of  sexual  sensation 
need  here  only  be  mentioned  as  the  instruments  of 
sensory  experiences  capable  of  becoming  organized 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  257 

into  useful  or  pleasurable  practices  which  are  not 
without  some  pretense  to  recognition  as  arts.  We 
are  concerned  here  mainly  with  the  meaning  and 
future  of  those  sesthetic  arts  which  subserve  the 
beautiful,  and  it  will  perhaps  be  most  profitable  to 
compare  dancing,  music,  and  painting  in  some  of 
their  more  patent  biological  relations. 

n 

It  is  in  dancing  that  the  human  form  can  be  seen 
most  effectively  in  its  appeal  to  the  sensual  aspect  of 
beauty.  According  to  the  intelligence  and  motive 
of  the  dancer,  this  appeal  may  be  on  a  low  or  on  a  high 
plane,  either  operating  as  an  incentive  to  abandon- 
ment of  personal  restraint,  or  as  the  awakener  of  noble 
feehng.  Or  the  influence  may  be  more  indifferent 
and  consist  of  arousing  deUght  and  a  pure  joy  in  the 
grace  and  elegance  of  varying  motion.  But  even  at 
its  best,  dancing  cannot  be  counted  as  vying  with 
painting  or  music  in  expressiveness  or  intensity  of 
appeal.  The  relatively  unspeciahzed  nature  of  the 
machinery  on  which  the  sense  of  position  depends  is 
incapable  of  subserving  more  than  this  one  primitive 
and  rather  generalized  function,  and  this  operates 
against  richness  of  content  and  variety  of  significance 
in  the  dancing  figure.  The  fact,  too,  that  the  entire 
muscular  mass  of  the  body  may  be  implicated  m  the 
motions  of  dancing  miUtates  against  concentration 
of  faculty  and  hence  against  the  highest  expressive- 


258    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ness.  Through  its  operations  in  both  time  and 
space,  the  dancer's  art  gains  its  pecuhar  charm  of 
grace,  while  at  the  same  time  losing  in  intensity.  We 
can  best  see  this  by  contrasting  the  effect  produced 
by  a  beautiful  human  figure  in  the  motion  of  danc- 
ing with  that  produced  when  the  figure  assumes  a 
fixed  position.  In  the  fixed  position  the  effect  is 
like  that  obtainable  by  sculpture,  the  space  expres- 
sion being  shorn  of  any  time  and  rhythmical  element. 
The  fixity  so  gained  at  once  becomes  the  means  of  a 
gain  in  seriousness  and  intensity  of  expression,  an 
increase  of  dignity.  Fixity  of  position  in  a  significant 
attitude  imparts  the  suggestion  of  the  fixity  of  fate, 
of  the  inexorable,  and  thus  gives  to  sculpture  its 
peculiar  impressiveness  in  dealing  with  the  larger 
human  emotions.  Thus  it  appears  that  there  are 
definite  biological  reasons  for  the  relatively  restricted 
appeal  of  dancing  as  an  art.  It  seems  certain  that 
dancing  will  be  employed  more  and  more  in  the  future 
for  expressions  of  the  milder  forms  of  human  delight, 
the  joy  of  motion  in  rhythm,  and  the  healthful  expen- 
diture of  stored  muscular  and  nervous  energy.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  appears  certain  that  no  great 
development  is  to  be  expected  in  the  range  or  inten- 
sity of  its  appeal  to  human  faculty  and  emotion. 

Ill 

Incomparably  more  analytical  of  the  phenomenal 
world  are  the  eye  and  the  ear  as  compared  with  the 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  259 

muscle  and  joint  senses.  Hence  we  should  expect 
that  the  aesthetic  products  based  on  them,  as,  for 
instance,  painting  and  music,  would  transcend 
dancing  in  expressiveness.  The  retina,  the  instru- 
ment for  the  distinction  of  luminous  waves  of  vary- 
ing lengths  and  innumerable  color  tints  as  well  as  the 
receptor  of  form  images  (dependent  on  gradations  of 
light  and  shade),  receives  those  pictures  of^the  exter- 
nal world  on  which  are  constructed  all  works  of 
painting  and  sculpture.  These  pictures  are  carried 
to  the  central  nervous  system  by  direct  and  crossed 
pathways,  and  not  merely  rise  into  consciousness,  but 
leave  residua  which  may  be  revived  under  certain 
conditions.  The  visual  receptive  apparatus  be- 
comes so  practiced  through  multitudinous  experi- 
ences that  it  has  the  power  of  apprehending  and 
reconstructing  entire  objects  or  even  complexes  of 
objects  from  partial  views  of  them.  There  are  two 
peculiarities  of  the  visual  apparatus  and  tracts  which 
exert  a  fundamental  determining  effect  on  the  qual- 
ity of  the  impressions  received  by  the  eyes.  One 
is  the  faculty  of  stereoscopic  vision,  subserved  as  it 
is  by  a  definite  muscular  mechanism,  which  permits 
the  estimation  of  the  distance  of  objects  and  hence 
the  appreciation  of  form  and  the  quality  of  surfaces. 
By  this  faculty  of  vision  the  artist  is  given  an  analyt- 
ical power  which  is  essential  to  that  just  imitation 
of  nature  which  is  a  feature  (though  not  the  sole 
ideal)  of  his  work.  Stereoscopic  vision,  however, 
does  not  help  the  observer  of  paintings,  but  may 
rather  hinder  him. 


260    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS,  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

Another  faculty,  closely  connected  with  the 
quality  of  beauty,  is  the  almost  instinctive  analysis 
of  objects  with  respect  to  symmetry.  In  nature  the 
property  of  bilateral  symmetry,  especially  vertical 
symmetry,  is  extremely  widespread.  We  see  it  in 
animals,  in  man,  in  trees,  fruits,  leaves,  and  flowers, 
and  in  many  inanimate  objects.  So  accustomed  are 
we  to  such  symmetry  that  we  lose  sight  of  its  impor- 
tance as  an  element  of  beauty.  A  few  simple  experi- 
ments will  convince  any  one  that  even  the  most 
irregular  scrawl  attains  a  certain  quality  of  interest 
or  even  of  beauty  when  so  duplicated  as  to  form  an 
outline  having  vertical  symmetry.  The  explanation 
of  this  aesthetic  quality  is  to  be  found  in  the  peculiar 
arrangement  of  visual  perception  in  the  cerebral 
cortex,  through  which  each  half  of  a  vertically 
symmetrical  object  is  twice  represented  in  the  same 
perceptual  centers. 

Visual  impressions  may  be  devoid  of  aesthetic 
quality,  or  they  may  be  distasteful,  or  they  may  be 
distinctly  agreeable  and  make  the  appeal  which  we 
designate  the  beautiful.  Few  impressions  are  quite 
indifferent  in  respect  to  aesthetic  quality,  there  being 
nearly  always  something  in  form,  color,  or  compo- 
sition capable  of  exciting  pleasure  in  sensitive  and 
trained  nervous  mechanisms.  On  the  other  hand, 
however  low  may  be  the  aesthetic  quality  of  a  visual 
impression,  it  is  almost  certain  to  yield  to  the  intellect 
some  information  having  some  grade  of  value  in 
self-preservation.     From  this  standpoint  nothing  is 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  261 

really  indifferent,  though  some  kinds  of  information 
are  far  more  valuable  than  others.  The  perception 
of  physical  quahties  of  objects  about  us,  and  the 
recognition  of  their  distance,  are,  at  any  moment, 
liable  to  become  practically  serviceable  in  protection 
from  injury  or  in  furtherance  of  an  aim. 


IV 


Sculpture  and  painting  appear  to  have  a  common 
origin  in  the  stone-cut  designs  of  early  Egypt  and 
Ethiopia.  These  designs  are  strikingly  free  from 
suggestions  of  the  sexual  element  in  life,  and  strongly 
tend  to  embody  the  self-preservative  instinct.  This 
is  shown  by  scenes  of  prowess,  of  hunting  and  fish- 
ing, of  boating,  of  fighting,  of  the  slaying  of  captives, 
of  petitions  and  offerings  to  the  gods.  And  there 
are  crude  symbols  belonging  equally  to  sculpture, 
to  painting,  and  to  literature,  such  as  the  wavy  hne 
used  to  represent  Hapi,  the  river  Nile. 

At  a  later  and  more  refined  stage  of  Egyptian  art 
the  softening  influence  of  sex  is  still  unknown.  So 
in  the  exquisitely  colored,  if  somewhat  grotesque, 
human  and  animal  figures  in  the  imposing  tomb  of 
Ceti  the  First  (where  the  rich  red  tones  are  cunningly 
used  to  display  a  pomp  and  magnificence  that  is 
truly  regal)  we  may  seek  in  vain  among  the  aggran- 
dizing compositions  for  any  scene  that  reflects  those 
human  affections  that  have  their  Jons  et  origo  in  the 
attachments  of   sex.     Indeed,  in  these  early  days 


262   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

even  the  rudest  manifestations  of  sex  are  suppressed 
from  the  chisel  pictures  and  the  color  pictures  with  a 
thoroughness  that  would  win  the  praise  of  the  Puri- 
tan rulers  of  a  New  England  town.  And  much  the 
same  holds  true  at  the  Ptolemaic  time,  when  Cleo- 
patral  forms  obtrude  themselves  on  temple  walls, 
and  the  birth  houses  picture  each  stage  in  the  drama 
of  a  human  childbirth.  There  is  little  to  show  that 
the  artist's  mind  had  grasped  more  than  the  mechan- 
ical and  obvious  aspects  of  the  sex  power.  Only 
rarely  do  sculptured  scenes  occur  that  suggest  that 
the  love  of  man  and  wife,  or  of  parent  and  child,  is 
one  of  the  great  human  forces  to  be  reckoned  with. 
In  the  days  of  Greco-Egyptian,  Greek,  or  Roman  art 
sculpture  served  better  than  painting  to  record  the 
charm  of  sex,  and  it  was  not  until  the  days  of  the 
Renaissance  that  gifted  painters,  yielding  to  the 
gentle  lead  of  Christian  tradition,  gave  themselves, 
at  least  in  part,  to  the  congenial  task  of  portraying 
the  adoration  of  the  Sacred  Mother  for  her  child. 

The  immense  popularity  of  the  Madonna  and  her 
child  has  its  real  basis  in  the  awakening  of  that 
human  sympathy  which  springs  from  the  love  of 
offspring,  and  it  is  a  pity  that  the  legend  of  the  birth 
of  Christ  should  have  been  marred  by  the  useful  but 
unbiological  myth  of  the  immaculate  conception. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  weaknesses  of  the  story, 
now  so  obvious  to  the  students  of  science,  should 
have  been  overlooked  by  the  multitudes  who  turned 
for  comfort  from  the  harsh,  inhuman  attitude  of 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  263 

paganism  to  the  warm,  kindly  feelings  typified  in  the 
portrayal  of  the  peaceful  tie  between  mother  and 
child.  Since  the  days  of  the  Renaissance,  the  art 
of  painting  has  recognized,  more  and  more  frankly, 
the  unsuppressible  power  of  the  sex  instinct,  and 
has  found,  in  the  nude  female  figure,  and  to  a  some- 
what less  extent  in  the  male  figure,  the  elements  of 
a  charm  and  beauty  that  have  their  basis  in  the 
fundamental  physical  and  aesthetic  needs  of  human 
nature.  Very  gradually,  as  people  have  grown  more 
gentle,  more  cultivated,  and  more  introspective,  the 
greatest  pictorial  art  has  come  to  occupy  itself  less 
and  less  with  subjects  subserving  the  aggrandizement 
of  man,  and  more  and  more  with  human  relations  in 
which  the  charm  and  beauty  of  sex  play  always  so 
potent  and  often  so  determining  a  role.  The  human- 
izing influences  of  Christianity  have  had  much  to  do 
with  facilitating  this  tendency  which  continues  to 
operate  to-day,  as  we  may  see  in  the  mural  decora- 
tions of  Puvis  de  Chavannes,  the  modern  represen- 
tative of  the  spirit  of  Botticelli.  But  the  humanizing 
lessons  of  religion  have  been  learned;  the  beauty 
child  has  learned  to  walk  alone,  and  the  art  of  to-day 
reflects  the  kindlier  human  feelings  based  on  no 
creed  but  on  a  broader  appeal  to  the  chivalry  and 
justice  of  man's  nature.  And  at  every  turn  it  is 
apparent  that  this  growth  has  its  foundation  in  the 
emotional  expressions  of  sexual  relations  and  espe- 
cially those  that  have  arisen  in  family  life. 
The  development  of  landscape  must  be  regarded 


264    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

as  a  side  growth  or  sub  art  of  painting.  Being  a 
recent  phase  of  art,  dating  back  in  reality  only  to  the 
time  of  Constable,  it  might  perhaps  be  thought  to 
stand  for  the  most  modern  Platonic  and  loftiest 
expression  of  the  painter.  But  the  beautiful  in 
landscape,  whatever  it  may  possess  in  charm,  refine- 
ment, and  suggestiveness,  must  always  make  a  rela- 
tively limited  appeal  to  the  imagination,  and  in 
power  to  arouse  emotion  and  passion  must  fall  far 
below  the  art  that  utilizes  the  sex  charm  of  the 
human  face  and  figure.  And  it  seems  safe  to  predict 
that  the  future,  as  well  as  the  present,  belongs  to  that 
aspect  of  pictorial  art  which  is  most  closely  in  accord 
with  the  most  powerful  stream  of  biological  tendency 
—  that  which  arouses  the  deepest  feelings  of  sym- 
pathy through  the  subtle  channels  of  a  refined  sex 
instinct,  blended  with  more  intellectual  appeals 
made  to  instincts  that  have  their  roots  in  the  somatic 
life. 

Aside  from  its  connection  with  architecture,  sculp- 
ture seems  not  likely  to  exert  a  wide  influence  on 
humanity,  owing  to  the  limitations  belonging  to  its 
medium  of  expression  which  brings  a  certain  coldness 
into  its  appeal.  In  architecture,  on  the  other  hand, 
we  have  an  art  susceptible  of  wide  development  and 
influence,  where  once  its  possibilities  are  appreciated 
and  its  principles  have  been  learned.  It  is  an  art 
which  has  greatly  suffered  through  the  practical 
needs  which  it  subserves.  People  can  live  without 
paintings  and  music,  but  are  compelled  to  erect 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  265 

houses  and  public  buildings,  and  this  necessity  has 
very  commonly  obscured  the  attainment  of  aesthetic 
qualities.  That  admirable  types  of  civic  architec- 
ture are  capable  of  exerting  a  refining  influence 
cannot  be  questioned,  and  the  intimacy  and  inevi- 
tableness  of  the  contact  makes  the  influence  more 
powerful  and  permanent  than  might  be  supposed. 
And  it  is  not  only  in  its  relation  to  hving  men  that 
architecture  is  significant.  Something  of  the  pain  at- 
tending the  disposal  of  the  dead  might  be  mitigated 
by  the  substitution  of  very  beautiful  and  dignified 
surroundings  of  the  last  resting  place  for  the  unlovely 
and  squalid  conditions  that  now  commonly  prevail 
and  add  an  unnecessary  burden  and  mental  discom- 
fort to  the  lives  of  the  stricken  survivors.  Some 
adaptation  of  the  Renaissance  of  France  and  Italy 
to  modern  needs  seems  the  most  likely  and  logical 
tendency  in  the  architecture  of  Anglo-Saxon  races. 


The  relatively  low  value  of  musical  sounds  in  the 
self-preservative  struggle,  and  the  unlikeness  of 
highly  developed  music  to  any  habitual  aural  experi- 
ences, have  the  effect  of  making  music  the  most 
detached  and  abstract  of  the  arts  and  the  farthest 
removed  in  its  content  from  everyday  experience. 
These  quahties  make  it  the  most  difficult  of  appre- 
hension for  people  in  general,  while  for  those  endowed 
by  nature  with  the  necessary  neural  machinery  and 


266    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

by  experience  with  the  necessary  comprehension,  it 
becomes  the  most  significant  and  profoundly  moving 
of  the  arts.  Musical  faculty  to  the  extent  of  pleas- 
urable experience  from  serious  compositions  is  a 
widespread  gift,  but  one  not  widely  cultivated  with 
seriousness.  In  some,  the  pleasure  comes  largely 
from  a  ready  perception  of  certain  quantitative  rela- 
tions in  rhythm  and  pitch ;  in  others,  this  instinctive 
analytical  power  is  replaced  by  emotional  sensibility; 
and  in  others,  still,  both  these  faculties  are  united. 
We  must  conclude  that  the  nervous  instruments  of 
receptivity  in  the  sense  organs  and  their  cerebral  con- 
nections are  constitutionally  different  in  different 
persons.  Great  refinement  in  the  receptive  appara- 
tus, e.g.  the  organ  of  Corti,  may  perhaps  determine 
the  nice  perception  of  pitch,  while  rhythm  may  be 
related  to  the  organs  of  the  labyrinth.  It  is  perhaps 
the  close  connection  of  the  auditory  nerves  and  nuclei 
with  the  nuclei  of  the  vagus  nerve  that  makes  it 
possible  for  music  to  arouse  such  profound  emotion, 
and  it  may  well  be  true  that  in  different  persons  these 
intemeural  links  are  not  equally  close  and  rich. 
The  vagus  nerve  is  connected  with  many  organs  on 
which  well-being  depends,  and  we  may  fancy  that 
disturbances  in  these  organs  may  sensitize  the  cen- 
tral nuclei  of  these  nerves  in  such  a  way  that  they 
would  be  overactivated  by  the  stimulation  of  the 
adjoining  auditory  nuclei,  and  so  lead  to  the  excessive 
emotional  response  observed  in  some  invalids.  The 
magic  manner  in  which  in  some  persons  music  domi- 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  267 

nates  all  the  higher  psychic  processes  is  possibly  due 
to  radiations  of  energy  from  the  auditory  projection 
centers  in  the  cerebrum  to  other  parts  of  the  cortex, 
which  may,  in  this  manner,  be  temporarily  inhibited 
and  thus  bring  about  the  psychical  concentration 
which  music  induces. 

The  art  of  music,  operating  as  it  does  in  time,  is 
far  more  difficult  to  trace  in  its  origin  than  the  art 
of  painting,  which,  operating  in  space,  may  leave  us 
visible  and  tangible  records.  We  are  quite  without 
the  means  of  knowing  under  what  influences  the  first 
rude  strains,  sufficiently  systematized  in  respect  to 
rhythm  and  pitch  to  give  them  somewhat  of  musical 
quahty,  made  their  way  into  existence.  It  seems 
likely  that  certain  tones  of  the  savage  human  voice, 
uttered  in  response  to  emotions  of  joy  or  triumph  or 
terror  or  pain,  formed  the  rude  basis  of  somewhat 
conventionalized  sequences  of  sounds,  which  though 
recorded  only  in  some  primitively  trained  minds, 
could  be  handed  on  from  one  generation  to  another, 
thus  growing  in  time,  by  simple  accretions,  into  tribal 
or  folk  songs.  It  is  likely,  too,  that  from  the  earhest 
times  of  musical  expression  song  subserved  the  emo- 
tional side  of  man's  nature  far  more  than  painting 
did,  and  that,  like  language  itself,  the  musical  art, 
even  in  its  crudest  stages,  voiced  the  many-sided 
needs  and  powers  of  man. 

The  human  voice  lends  itself  with  the  utmost  ease 
to  the  expression  of  emotion,  and  there  is,  accordingly, 
the  closest  physiological  similarity  between  the  pro- 


268    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

cesses  that  underlie  the  musical  utterances  of  song 
and  those  that  subserve  spoken  words.     There  is, 
in   fact,  every   imaginable    transition   between   the 
most  prosaic  of  spoken  words  uttered  without  re- 
gard to  pitch  or  rhythm  and  the  most  poetic  ver- 
bal expressions  designed  expressly  for  song.     Poetry 
and  music  are  thus  most  intimately  affiliated  in 
their  origin,  and  the  resemblance  between  these  arts 
extends  to  their  contents.     It  is  equally  within  the 
sphere  of  music  and  of  poetry  to  be  the  vehicle  for 
feelings  based  on  the  instinct  of  self-preservation,  or 
on  the  instinct  of  sex,  or  on  the  fusion  of  both  these 
primitive  instincts,  and  it  seems  probable  that  in  a 
rude  way  both  music  and  poetry  did  actually  subserve 
the  expression  of  these  instincts  at  a  very  early  period 
of  the  race  history.     That  men  used  vocal  music  as  a 
means  of  self-aggrandizement  long  before  they  used 
it  to  give  expression  to  the  subtle  and  refined  phases 
of  human  love,  seems  as  obvious  as  the  corresponding 
truth  in  respect  to  painting.     We  may  draw  on  the 
Greeks  for  examples  of  this  inequality  in  the  expres- 
sion of  somatic  as  compared  with  sexually  based 
feelings.     Plutarch  says  of  them:  ''And  their  very 
songs  had  a  life  and  spirit  in  them  that  inflamed  and 
possessed  men's  minds  with  an  enthusiasm  and  ardor 
for  action ;  the  style  of  them  was  plain  and  without 
affectation ;    the  subject  always  serious  and  moral ; 
most  usually  it  was  in  praise  of  such  men  as  had  died 
in  defense  of  their  country,  or  in  derision  of  those 
that  had  been  cowards.     There  were  also  vaunts  of 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  269 

what  they  would  do,  and  boasts  of  what  they  had 
done,  varying  with  the  various  ages ;  as,  for  example, 
they  had  three  choirs  in  their  solemn  festivals,  the 
first  of  the  old  men,  the  second  of  the  young  men, 
and  the  last  of  the  children;  the  old  men  began 
thus:  — 

"  We  once  were  young  and  brave  and  strong." 
The  young  men  answered  them,  singing : — 

"  And  we're  so  now,  come  on  and  try." 
The  children  came  last  and  said : — 

"  But  we'll  be  strongest  by  and  by." 

Many  examples  could  be  given  to  show  that  the 
music  of  the  Greeks  was  related  to  the  idea  of  valor 
and  military  glory  much  more  than  to  the  refined 
sentiments  of  humanity  which  have  their  pivot  in 
the  relations  of  family  life.  And  this  need  excite  no 
wonder,  for  nothing  else  could  be  expected  from  a 
nation  which  made  the  family  secondary  to  the  state, 
and  which  was  satisfied  to  permit  a  large  number  of 
its  best  and  most  intelligent  women  to  lead  the  lives 
of  prostitutes.  That  under  these  conditions  the 
tj^ical  Greek  music  should  be  dull,  unimaginative, 
and  lacking  in  ideas  is  only  what  might  be  predicted 
of  any  nation,  however  brilliant,  where  the  relations 
between  men  and  women  are  wanting  in  delicacy 
and  deeply  romantic  and  self-sacrificing  attachments. 
The  Greek  poverty  of  instruments  capable  of  express- 


270    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

ing  profound  emotion  may  have  contributed  in  some 
degree  to  the  thinness  of  their  music,  but  this  poverty 
is  to  be  considered  as  a  result  of  the  prevaiUng  defi- 
ciency in  musical  ideas  rather  than  its  cause. 

Just  as  painting  found  its  great  chance  in  the  illus- 
tration of  Christian  tradition,  so  did  music  perceive 
its  opportunity  in  ministering  to  the  devotional  spirit 
that  tenanted  the  Gothic  churches  of  Christendom. 
The  music  of  Palestrina  and  of  Buxtehude,  though 
unimpassioned  and  failing  to  reflect  modern  intro- 
spective tendencies,  was  admirable  in  form  and  served 
well  to  introduce  the  deeper  feeling  embodied  in  the 
classic  contrapuntal  composition  of  Bach.  The 
great  emotional  restraint  and  noble  devotional  char- 
acter of  Bach's  music  give  it  a  stately  grandeur 
which  compensates  in  a  degree  its  lack  of  freedom  in 
form  and  variety  in  emotional  qualities  —  at  least 
as  compared  with  the  work  of  later  masters.  The 
music  of  Bach  leans  to  the  intellectual  rather  than 
to  the  emotional  side,  but  just  as  it  is  too  refined 
and  lofty  to  reflect  any  crude  aspects  of  the  instinct 
of  self-preservation,  so  it  is  too  calm  in  its  feeling  to 
arouse,  in  an  active  way,  the  passion  of  love  based 
in  a  direct  way  on  sexual  attraction.  It  deals  rather 
with  the  impersonal  and  abstract  aspirations  of 
man,  with  broad  philosophical  or  devotional  men- 
tal states,  than  with  more  elementary  and  per- 
sonal moods.  The  music  of  Beethoven  reflects  the 
qualities  of  a  passionate  being,  less  restrained  by  the 
forms  of  art,  more  desirous  of  making  an  appeal, 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  271 

through  the  beautiful,  to  the  generosity,  the  pity,  and 
the  affection  of  human  beings.  Beethoven's  genius 
has  a  wider  range,  a  greater  inclusiveness  than  that 
of  Bach.  In  the  Missa  Solemnis  it  exhibits  a  lofty 
devotional  spirit  not  inferior  to  Bach's  purest  offer- 
ings to  the  humanitarian  spirit  of  Christianity. 
The  Third  Symphony  utters  an  appeal  for  the  Ub- 
erties  of  man  that  has  never  been  equaled  in  force, 
passion,  or  nobility.  In  his  love  music  a  still  dif- 
ferent and  exquisite  phase  of  Beethoven's  power  is 
revealed.  If  history  speak  truly,  the  naive  and 
simple  song  which  bears  the  name  of  Adelaide  was 
the  vehicle  by  which  the  great  musician  expressed 
a  deep  personal  attachment.  In  this  song,  as  in 
others,  Beethoven  shows  us  how  seriously,  with  what 
romantic  idealism,  he  regarded  the  attachments  that 
spring  up  between  the  sexes.  His  music,  though 
full  of  sentiment  and  tenderness  and  often  tinged 
with  the  deepest  pathos,  is  never  morbid  or  depress- 
ing, but  rather  joyful  and  stimulating  to  unselfish 
acts.  This  healthful  tone  was  caught  also  by 
Schubert  and  is  recorded  in  that  astonishingly  long 
series  of  songs  devoted  to  themes  of  love  that  flowed 
so  spontaneously  from  his  pen.  Robert  Schumann, 
inspired  by  both  Beethoven  and  Schubert,  mingled 
with  the  qualities  which  he  derived  from  his  masters 
an  exquisitely  refined  and  beautiful  pain  sense,  which, 
though  verging  at  times  on  the  psychological,  is, 
upon  the  whole,  healthful  in  tendency.  This  com- 
plex aesthetic   quality,  so  essentially  modern  in  its 


272    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

introspective  vein,  when  translated  by  Schumann 
into  the  music  of  love,  resulted  in  the  creation  of 
the  most  poetic,  most  intimate  appeals  of  quivering 
consciousness  for  reciprocity  in  an  attachment  of 
the  most  ethereal  and  delicate  quality  of  which  a 
sexually  founded  passion  is  capable.  A  very  similar 
type  of  poetic  achievement  in  music  is  to  be  found  in 
the  love  songs  of  Johannes  Brahms  and  of  Richard 
Strauss.  In  neither  of  these  composers  is  there  to  be 
seen  the  same  degree  of  spontaneity  of  utterance  as 
in  Schumann,  while  in  both  there  is  a  highly  indi- 
vidual attribute  of  modernity  which  arises  from  a 
refined  but  sometimes  somber  self-scrutiny  in  respect 
to  emotional  experiences.  But  it  is  significant  of  the 
marvelously  subtle  and  varied  possibilities  of  erotic 
feeling  that  these  newest  exponents  of  a  fundamental 
human  passion  should  be  able  to  stir  emotional 
depths  hitherto  unsounded  and  sometimes  terrible 
in  their  beauty  pain.  And  any  mention  of  modern 
tendencies  in  the  music  of  love  would  be  glaringly 
incomplete  without  a  reference  to  the  very  different 
emotional  response  that  may  be  counted  on  from 
the  ingratiatingly  sensuous,  semisensual  music  of 
Wagner,  as  one  may  hear  it,  for  example,  in  Tristan 
and  Isolde.  The  wonderfully  continued  summa- 
tions of  stimuli  ending  in  climaxes  of  great  emotional 
intensity  and  exquisite  beauty  derive  their  signi- 
ficance from  the  universality  of  their  appeal,  from 
the  fact  that  they  elicit  a  keenly  pleasurable  sensa- 
tion from  so  many  different  nervous  systems,  at 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  273 

least  during  the  adolescent  and  early  adult  periods 
of  life.  These  sensory  and  emotional  experiences 
are,  in  general,  on  a  far  lower  plane  than  those  more 
subtle  responses  excited  by  the  music  of  Brahms,  in 
the  sense  of  being  dependent  on  simpler  elementary 
feelings  of  passion  less  mixed  with  the  highly  pleas- 
urable pain  sensations  that  spring  from  the  arous- 
ing of  impulses  of  self -sacrificial  nature  —  impulses 
always  demanded  by  the  least  selfish  form  of  love. 
What  has  been  said  suffices  to  show  that  a  not 
insignificant  phase  of  the  productivity  of  the  repre- 
sentative masters  of  modern  music  has  to  do  with  the 
amorous  side  of  human  consciousness,  and  it  cannot 
be  gainsaid  that  this  has  its  origin  in  the  sex  instinct. 
A  recognition  of  the  refinement  and  nobility  of  the 
feelings  that  have  given  birth  to  much  of  this  music 
must  not  blind  us  to  its  essentially  sexual  origin. 
Such  feelings  may  be  and  doubtless  often  are  wholly 
distinct  from  any  indulgence  even  remotely  verging 
on  sensuality,  but  they  have  their  basis  as  definitely 
in  the  cruder  necessities  of  sex  as  the  refined  tissues  of 
the  nervous  system  have  their  parentage  in  the  primi- 
tive vulgar  epithelium  of  the  skin.  It  is  unphilo- 
sophical  for  us  to  lose  sight  of  the  biologically  humble 
ancestry  of  our  artistic  feelings,  and  to  deUberately 
close  our  eyes  to  it  is  a  process  of  intellectual  snobbery 
comparable  to  the  spirit  that  encourages  a  rich  bank 
director  to  forget  that  he  was  once  a  laborer  on  the 
docks.  But  it  is  not  merely  the  music  of  love  that 
can   be   traced   to   this   relatively   humble   origin. 


274    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

There  is  much  to  indicate  that  rehgion  itself  has  one 
of  its  firmest  and  deepest  roots  in  the  instinct  of  sex, 
and  if  this  be  true,  it  follows  that  even  the  most 
elevated  devotional  music  is  founded  in  some  meas- 
ure on  this  instinct. 


VI 

The  drama  with  its  complex  double  appeal  to  the 
eye  and  the  ear  offers  ways  of  making  profound 
impressions  on  the  human  nervous  system,  and  on 
account  of  this  varied  expression  is  perhaps  capable 
of  reaching  effectively  more  kinds  of  nervous  organi- 
zations than  any  of  the  more  elementary  arts.  It 
were,  indeed,  an  insensitive  and  ill-formed  being  who 
should  find  nothing  of  response  within  himself  to  a 
well-presented  Hamlet  or  Camille.  And  it  is  just 
this  wealth  of  appeal  in  which  nearly  every  kind  and 
shade  of  human  trait  can  be  exposed  to  the  mind's 
eye  and  ear  which  gives  the  drama  its  great  biological 
significance,  its  power  to  mould  slowly  or  quickly, 
the  reactions  on  which  the  conduct  and  opinions  of 
individuals  depend.  We  may  say  that  the  abuse  of 
the  drama  is  one  of  the  most  serious  defects  in  civiliza- 
tion, while,  on  the  other  hand,  its  embodiment  of 
the  highest  ideals  is  one  of  the  greatest  levers  for 
progress.  Good  taste  and  discrimination  in  drama 
must  come  in  part  from  exposure  to  the  influence  of 
the  best  plays  rendered  by  the  best  actors,  but  the 
effectiveness  of  this  mode  of  appeal  must  depend  in 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  275 

a  high  degree  on  education  in  other  directions,  in 
actual  human  relations  and  in  Uterature.  In  other 
words,  the  type  of  human  education,  in  the  large 
sense,  will  influence  the  nature  of  the  demand  for 
dramatic  performance  more  than  this  can  influence 
education.  But  it  is  not  unreasonable  to  hope  that 
with  the  years  there  will  be  a  powerful  growth  in 
significant  dramatic  influence,  capable  of  modifying 
in  important  and  amehorating  ways  the  conduct  of 
larger  numbers  of  people  than  at  present.  Probably 
it  is  the  emotional  effect  —  the  effect  obtained 
through  human  speech,  modified  by  the  presentment 
of  human  action  —  which  chiefly  accounts  for  the 
intensity  of  the  dramatic  influence,  and  this  influence 
may  be  exactly  appraised  by  comparing  the  effects 
of  the  play  as  read  or  acted. 

While  the  completeness  with  which  the  drama 
represents  human  situations  is  one  measure  for  the 
efficiency  of  its  appeal,  it  is  yet  evident  that  some 
loss  in  simplicity,  purity,  and  depth  of  artistic 
stimulus  springs  from  this  commingling  of  multiple 
visual  and  auditory  impressions.  There  are  senti- 
ments so  large  in  their  conception  that  we  can  best 
feel  and  understand  them  when  presented  to  us  in  the 
simplest  settings.  We  see  likewise  this  loss  in  sim- 
plicity and  directness  of  appeal  where  the  musical 
drama  is  used  as  a  vehicle  of  artistic  expression. 
The  noblest  music  loses  when  harnessed  to  words 
expressive  of  quite  definite  ideas  or  when  associated 
with  a  definite  set  of  human  actions,  for  the  reason 


276    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

that  such  music  is  by  itself  sufficient  to  completely 
absorb  the  attention  of  even  the  most  cultivated 
and  analytical  ear.  The  simultaneous  appeal  to  the 
visual  sense  means  division  of  attention  and  a  dilu- 
tion of  the  deepest  auditory  effect  of  which  the 
music  is  capable.  This  appears  to  be  the  experience 
of  the  most  gifted  musical  persons  and  apparently 
rests  on  definite  laws  governing  the  expenditure  of 
the  energy  implicated  in  the  maintenance  of  atten- 
tion. It  may  be  successfully  contended  that  music 
is  not  at  its  best  when  serving  the  drama,  and  there 
appears  a  sound  biological  basis  for  this  contention. 
And  we  may  go  so  far  as  to  hold  that  music  illus- 
trated by  words  departs  from  the  hues  of  greatest 
purity  of  appeal  by  introducing  an  attempt  at  defi- 
nition which,  at  least  in  some  of  its  greatest  examples, 
may  better  be  left  to  itself  to  work  its  full  effect  on 
the  imagination.  We  cannot,  for  example,  conceive 
of  any  poem  or  drama  which  would  not  rob  the  later 
Beethoven  quartets  of  something  of  their  profundity. 

VII 

If  we  look  at  literature  m  its  relation  to  the  funda- 
mental somatic  and  sexual  instincts,  as  we  have 
already  glanced  at  painting  and  music,  it  quickly 
becomes  obvious  that  the  relation  is  more  intimate 
and  springs  into  view  more  spontaneously  than  in  the 
case  of  either  of  these  other  arts.  The  reason  for  the 
greater  obtrusiveness  of  the  roots  of  literature  is  to 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  277 

be  sought  in  the  greater  simpUcity  of  the  medium 
of  literary  expression.  So  great  are  the  technical 
difficulties  relating  to  music  that  the  development  of 
the  art  was  greatly  delayed  by  the  necessity  for 
mastering  these,  and  to  this  day  it  remains  the 
medium  in  which  the  fewest  artists  are  able  to  work 
with  success.  Painting  also  demands  highly  special 
technical  conditions,  which  make  it  relatively  easy 
to  meet  with  measurable  success,  but  extremely 
difficult  or  impossible  to  ideally  satisfy,  owing  to  the 
poor  control  that  even  modern  artists  possess  over 
the  lengths  of  light  waves  as  compared  with  control 
over  the  lengths  of  sound  waves.  But  literature  uses 
a  medium  that  makes  lesser  demands  on  the  technical 
ingenuity  of  a  race  than  either  painting  or  music,  and 
hence  we  find  many  nations  that  have  left  respect- 
able verbal  records,  but  neither  musical  nor  form- 
color  traces.  So  it  has  come  about  that  we  have  in 
literature  far  more  complete  evidences  of  the  causal 
nexus  with  the  basic  instincts  through  a  long  period 
of  time.  Nevertheless,  the  literatures  of  ancient 
peoples  are  so  incomplete  as  to  give  us  only  an 
occasional  glimpse  into  their  dominant  thoughts. 
But  from  these  glimpses  we  learn  that  in  literature, 
as  in  music  and  painting,  the  expression  of  the 
somatic  instinct  precedes  and  overshadows  those 
based  on  sex.  The  oldest  Egyptian  writings  con- 
sist of  appeals  to  the  gods,  of  directions  for  achiev- 
ing salvation,  of  boasts  about  personal  prowess 
and  conquests.     Occasionally,  as  in  the  "Egyptian 


278    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

Tales,"  there  is  an  allusion  to  affairs  of  love  and 
even  an  intimation  of  some  refinement  of  feeling  in 
the  relation  between  man  and  woman;  but  these 
are  very  exceptional  utterances,  and  the  idea  of 
self-aggrandizement  in  this  life  and  in  the  next  is 
everywhere  dominant.  The  Homeric  poems  taught 
''discipline,  arms,  and  equipment  of  war,"  and  reflect 
man's  love  of  himself  and  his  infinite  capacity  for 
brutalities  of  all  sorts.  The  nobler  forms  of  attach- 
ment between  the  sexes  do  not  seriously  burden  the 
poet.  Penelope  was  certainly  patient  in  waiting  for 
Odysseus,  and  Andromache  appears  to  have  been 
pained  to  part  with  Hector,  but  there  is  no  reason 
to  believe  that  this  devotion  was  anything  but  one- 
sided, the  man  being  bent  on  the  pursuit  of  what  he 
thought  to  be  glory.  Plato  had  the  intelligence  to 
see  that  a  state  could  not  be  strong  where  its  women 
were  so  undervalued  and  insulted  that  they  suffered 
in  physique  from  the  neglect  to  which  they  were 
subjected;  his  advocacy  of  their  rights  rested  on 
practical  rather  than  sentimental  motives.  The 
sympathetic  and  understanding  attitude  of  Euripides 
toward  women  (as  shown,  for  example,  in  his  Medea) 
but  serves  to  emphasize  by  contrast  the  universal 
predominance  in  Greek  literature  of  the  self-glorifica- 
tion of  the  male.  There  is  nothing  to  suggest  that 
the  sex  instinct  had  developed  in  men  and  women 
the  finest  traits  of  personal  devotion.  The  same 
hardness,  due  to  the  mastery  of  the  self-preservative 
instincts,   is   seen   in   the   Old   Testament.     Christ 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  279 

brought  an  old  force  newly  into  play  —  the  humani- 
tarian sympathy  that  leads  the  strong  to  protect  the 
weak  and  that  recognizes  the  infinite  superiority  of 
the  spiritual  over  the  grossly  material  elements  of 
life.  In  battling  for  the  ideal  of  human  sympathy 
he  fought  unconsciously  for  the  development  of  the 
refined  manifestations  of  the  sex  and  racial  instinct  as 
opposed  to  the  brutal  tendencies  of  self-aggrandize- 
ment. Despite  the  perversions  it  has  suffered,  this 
Christian  ideal  has  been  kept  alive  by  the  nations 
of  Europe,  especially  by  their  poets  and  religious 
teachers.  The  history  of  civilization  in  Christen- 
dom has  been  a  record  of  broadening  S3niipathies, 
moving  hand  in  hand  with  rising  intelligence. 
Literature  clearly  reflects  the  growth  of  this  humani- 
tarian spirit.  Now  if  we  analyze  from  a  biological 
standpoint  the  underlying  civilizing  forces  that  have 
been  at  work  in  Christian  countries  during  the  past 
two  thousand  years,  as  they  are  revealed  in  the  lit- 
erature of  the  dominant  modern  countries  (France, 
Germany,  England),  we  see  that  progress  has  been 
attended  by  a  growth  in  those  qualities  that  spring 
from  increasingly  intelligent  affection,  devotion,  and 
self-sacrifice  between  the  sexes.  The  improvement 
in  relations  between  parents,  and  between  parents 
and  children,  has  been  attended  by  meliorations 
between  persons  unrelated  by  blood,  but  related  by 
ties  of  temperament  and  sympathy,  and  finally  also 
by  the  betterment  in  the  attitude  of  men  and  women 
toward  the  unknown  multitudes  —  in  other  words, 


280    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

a  broadening  of  interest  in  the  entire  great  human 
family.  Underlying  this  enormous  gain  is  the  fusion 
of  the  primitive  sex  impulse  with  the  essentially  self- 
preservative  impulse  on  the  part  of  each  sex,  to 
acquire  knowledge  of  the  other  sex.  Higher  sexual 
interests  have  thus  become  based  on  lower  and 
more  primitive  ones,  and  this  growth  has  had  an 
immeasurable  but  powerful  effect  in  checking  some 
of  the  savage  impulses  that  come  from  the  unbalanced 
exercise  of  the  most  elementary  somatic  instincts. 
Literature  clearly  enough  reflects  these  tendencies, 
which  are  associated  with  the  same  slow-going  incli- 
nation to  self-examination  that  is  notable  in  music, 
and  that  began  during  the  Renaissance  and  Reforma- 
tion. The  sonnets  of  Petrarch,  the  verses  of  Dante 
to  Beatrice,  the  erotic  sonnets  of  Shakespeare,  so 
pregnant  with  biological  understanding,  all  reflect  the 
awakening  of  the  higher  sexual  feelings  and  emo- 
tions often  attended  by  the  half-pleasurable  pains 
of  introspective  thought. 

And  if  further  testimony  were  needed  to  show  the 
greater  refinement  of  understanding  and  feeling  that 
pervades  modern  literature  in  its  delineation  of  the 
amorous  passion,  it  is  to  be  had  in  the  poems  of 
Goethe,  of  Heine,  and  of  Browning,  in  the  plays  of 
Alfred  de  Musset,  and  in  the  revolutionary  idealistic 
writings  of  George  Sand.  Society  is  also  indebted 
to  Mr.  Bernard  Shaw  for  a  physiological  interpreta- 
tion of  many  sexual  manifestations  that  arise  from 
the  somatic  instincts.    For  while  Mr.  Shaw's  views 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  281 

are  often  expressed  with  more  regard  for  the  witty 
than  for  the  true,  they  are  to  be  commended  in  gen- 
eral for  their  frankness  and  soundness. 

The  abihty  of  the  race  to  record  easily  the  symbols 
of  verbal  expression  —  language  —  in  such  a  way  that 
they  can  be  recognized  and  conveniently  revived 
by  persons  who  have  never  before  seen  them  brings 
with  it  a  new  and  unique  possibility.  This  is  the 
power  conferred  by  such  records  on  an  individual  to 
acquaint  himself  accurately  with  the  thought  of 
many  other  persons,  not  only  in  the  present,  but  in 
the  past.  Such  a  power  not  merely  enormously 
increases  the  knowledge  of  an  individual,  but  also 
furnishes  the  materials  for  wide  and  safe  excursions 
of  imagination.  The  possession  of  a  literature  be- 
comes the  most  powerful  means  of  elevating  man  in 
culture  and  in  intelligence.  During  the  greater 
part  of  the  time  that  human  records  have  existed 
only  the  few  have  benefited  by  them.  Nevertheless, 
they  have  served  to  keep  alive  a  slender  but  impor- 
tant stream  of  human  lore  until  such  time  as  the 
ingenuity  of  man  devised  movable  types  and  the 
printing  press.  With  the  spread  of  printed  matter 
came  the  first  great  step  in  the  modernization  of  the 
world,  the  popularization  of  the  opportunity  to 
learn  mainly  through  education  of  the  visual  mecha- 
nism, and  less  directly  of  the  auditory  centers.  But 
the  wisest  development  does  not  necessarily  center 
about  the  invention  that  brings  facility  of  perform- 
ance.   It  is  well  understood  that  in  science  there  are 


282    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

drawbacks  to  the  buiding  up  of  researches  around 
new  apparatus.  The  cheapness  of  printing  and  the 
ease  with  which  newspapers  are  disseminated  has 
led  to  the  popularization  of  the  trivial,  the  vulgar, 
the  criminal,  and  has  in  a  degree  poisoned  popular 
taste.  It  is,  however,  a  law  of  nervous  action  that 
overstimulation  of  any  receptive  neural  mechanism 
leads  to  fatigue  and  often  to  disgust,  while  at  the 
same  time  tending  to  render  the  mechanism  more 
sensitive  than  previously  to  contrary  influences. 
The  law  probably  holds  good  of  emotional  stimula- 
tion as  well  as  simple  sensory  excitement,  and  just 
as  the  eye  overexposed  to  yellow  becomes  sensitized 
to  purple,  so  must  the  mind  in  time,  wearied  with  this 
sensationalism  and  falsity  of  the  newspaper  press, 
become  more  aware  of  the  satisfactions  to  be  gained 
through  the  opposite  qualities.  We  may,  therefore, 
expect  to  witness  reform  following  sensationalism. 

In  the  higher  fields  of  literature,  in  criticism, 
fiction,  poetry,  and  philosophy,  the  ease  of  printing 
the  results  has  had  a  better  influence,  though,  as  in  fic- 
tion, not  an  uniformly  good  one,  since  there  has  come 
into  existence  a  great  mass  of  writing  without  claim 
to  merit  of  permanence.  But  the  laws  of  competi- 
tion and  survival  are  acting  here,  and  there  is  every- 
where in  literature  evidence  that  the  public  is  growing 
educated  in  ideals  as  well  as  in  knowledge.  A  portion 
of  the  community  has  begun  to  think  critically.  It 
demands  from  poets  and  novelists  some  justification 
for  writing,  some  evidence  of  originaUty  in  thought 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  283 

or  method,  some  improvement  over  earlier  achieve- 
ments. Certain  standards  of  judgment  reflect  clearly- 
enough  the  modernity  born  of  science,  especially  in 
its  biological  aspects.  Emergent  from  the  most 
varied  judgments  is  the  growing  tendency  to  place 
a  higher  and  higher  value  on  truth.  The  criteria 
as  to  what  constitutes  the  truth  have  been  largely 
modified  by  the  teachings  of  science,  and  literature  is 
unmistakably  feeling  the  influence  of  this  alteration 
in  standards.  The  efifect  is  visible  both  in  fiction 
and  in  poetry.  The  modern  concepts  of  the  universe, 
and  especially  the  evolutionary  conception  of  man, 
have  greatly  added  to  the  diflSculty  of  writing  a 
superior  order  of  poetry,  since  these  compel  the  aban- 
donment of  too  crude  notions  of  an  anthropomorphic 
or  mythical  sort.  On  the  other  hand,  it  requires  a 
lofty  and  noble  handling  of  the  large  themes  of 
nature  to  secure  a  reasonable  conformity  with  the 
spirit  of  science  without  yielding  to  an  embarrassing 
precision  of  detail  fatal  to  poetic  fancy.  That  there 
will  one  day  arise  a  type  of  genius  successfully  expres- 
sive of  the  poetry  of  the  play  of  celestial  and  human 
forces  seems  probable.  Goethe,  Browning,  and  Emer- 
son have  entered  this  nonfacile  territory,  and  Shelley 
has  worked  his  rich  imagery  into  its  margin  in  his 
inspired  groping  toward  the  light  of  truth.  That 
the  orderly  plays  of  energy,  as  seen  in  ions,  in  living 
organisms,  and  in  the  mechanics  of  the  universe,  are 
inspiriting  themes  for  poetic  expression  is  obvious, 
but  it  is  equally  clear  that  some  of  the  mythological 


284    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

and  anthropomorphic  imagery  that  has  served  so 
well  in  the  past  will  hardly  continue  to  pass  as  poetic 
coin  without  some  revision  and  recasting.  It  is 
possible  that  blank  verse  may  be  found  a  more  fitting 
medium  than  rhymed  verse  for  the  expression  of 
such  modern  conceptions  of  the  large  play  of  forces. 
In  fiction,  too,  there  is  an  unmistakable  trend 
toward  verisimiUtude.  Fiction  as  a  form  of  literature 
plainly  exposes  the  limitations  of  the  human  mind  in 
respect  to  the  understanding  of  other  human  minds, 
for  it  makes  a  strong  call  on  imagination,  and  often 
the  play  of  fancy  is  shackled  only  by  the  necessity 
of  conforming  to  truth  sufficiently  to  evade  the  offen- 
sively grotesque  and  the  ridiculous.  The  novel  is 
still  too  young  to  make  it  possible  to  predict  whose 
works  will  longest  command  the  time  of  cultured 
readers,  though  it  seems  old  enough  to  have  estab- 
lished itself  as  a  literary  form.  Many  types  of 
elaborate  neural  organization  are  represented  in  the 
experiments  of  the  word  painters  of  human  story  — 
the  exaggerated  emotionalism  of  Dickens,  the  calm 
analytical  power  of  Eliot,  the  kindly  critical  reac- 
tions of  Thackeray,  the  essentially  penetrating 
mental  vision  of  Turgenev,  the  direct  polarizing 
prismatic  vision  of  Henry  James  which  regularly 
deflects  the  emotional  ray  to  permit  only  the  emer- 
gence of  the  extraordinary.  The  great  story-tellers 
are  intuitive  psychologists,  and  the  hold  of  their 
writing  depends  far  more  on  their  understanding  of 
the  human  mind  than  on  any  incidental  descriptions 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  285 

of  scene  or  place.  The  fictional  arena  is  a  wide  one, 
inviting  to  all  grades  of  talent ;  and  if  it  seems  too 
crowded  with  mediocrity,  it  is  consoling  to  know  that 
here,  too,  the  law  of  biological  struggle  and  survival 
is  active,  and  must  shortly  clear  the  field  of  all  but 
the  presenters  of  the  truth  which  the  world  is  learn- 
ing to  demand  in  more  and  more  refined  form.  If 
an  intense  realism  prevail  for  a  time,  it  should  excite 
neither  wonder  nor  apprehension  for  the  fate  of  the 
novelists'  art.  For  such  reaHsm  is  needed,  by  many 
at  some  time,  by  some  at  all  times,  to  hold  the  mirror 
of  record  to  the  complexities  of  human  action,  and 
to  help  to  free  them  from  confusion.  The  guarantee 
that  the  idealized  versions  of  thought  and  conduct 
will  triumph  ultimately  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  human 
mind  tu-es  of  the  simply  photographic  and  delights 
in  emphasis  of  the  tendencies  and  meanings  which 
can  only  be  elicited  by  the  art  of  sane  idealization. 

VIII 

In  the  foregoing  sections  some  reasons  have  been 
adduced  which  show  that  in  painting,  in  music,  and 
in  literature  we  have  human  products  that  represent 
the  fusion  of  self-preservative  and  sexual  instincts. 
It  is  not  difficult  to  produce  evidence  that  a  fusion 
of  these  instincts  is  also  perceivable  in  the  religious 
activities  of  the  human  mind.  All  forms  of  religion 
have  at  least  two  kinds  of  devotees:  those  that  are 
chiefly  interested  in  the  outward  signs  of  reUgion, 


286    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

and  those  that  are  attracted  mainly  by  the  spiritual 
or  devotional  qualities  of  their  belief.  The  motives 
that  animate  the  former  class  are  usually  not  highly 
complex,  and  need  not  concern  us  here ;  but  the  basis 
of  the  truly  spiritual  devotion  is  much  more  obscure, 
and  should  not  be  overlooked  in  any  examination  of 
the  primitive  biological  factors  that  enter  into  men- 
tal states.  For  our  purpose  it  is  not  necessary  to 
discuss  the  probable  historical  development  of  the 
earliest  forms  of  religion.  It  is  sufficient  to  note 
that  all  primitive  religious  ideas  probably  have  their 
foundations  in  the  desire  to  get  material  aid  from 
superior  powers.  The  god  is  called  upon  for  food, 
for  success  in  battle,  for  help  against  evil  spirits 
and  fearful  things,  and  probably  not  for  spiritual  aid 
in  the  elevation  of  character.  Every  popular  reli- 
gious belief  apparently  crystallizes  about  some  defi- 
nite material  need  or  group  of  needs  to  which  may 
be  added  later  more  abstract  wants.  The  varying 
conceptions  as  to  the  nature  of  the  ruling  power  or 
powers,  found  among  various  peoples  and  in  different 
ages,  are  purely  arbitrary  expressions  of  a  striving 
to  make  tangible  and  distinct  that  which  all  have 
vaguely  or  more  distinctly  felt  to  lie  outside  the  grasp 
of  human  intelligence.  Now  these  symbols  of  power 
which  men  have  invented  or  selected  from  natural 
objects  for  purposes  of  adoration  have  been  con- 
sciously or  unconsciously  selected  with  reference 
to  individual  needs  or  racial  needs.  These  needs 
represent  both  the  somatic  and  the  sexual  instincts, 


THE  ARTS  AND  RELIGION  287 

and  are  to  be  recognized,  if  sometimes  with  difficulty, 
even  in  the  most  purely  devotional  mental  states  of 
modern  Protestantism.  To  those  who  like  to  regard 
the  religious  instinct  as  something  wholly  separate 
from  thoughts,  feelings,  and  emotions  of  obviously 
bodily  origin,  this  analysis  of  devotional  states  into 
something  more  primitive  is  likely  to  be  distasteful. 
The  only  reasonable  basis  for  such  a  distaste  lies  in 
the  assumption  that  there  is  something  ignoble  about 
the  elementary  natural  phenomena,  a  position  which 
is  not  acceptable  to  the  philosophically  minded 
biologist. 


CHAPTER  XII 

EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTUKE  OF  THE  RACE 

It  is  self-evident  that  whatever  may  be  the  moral 
or  intellectual  aspirations  of  a  nation  or  race  these 
can  be  achieved  and  secured  only  by  maintaining  a 
reasonable  level  of  physical  vigor.  In  special  cases 
a  considerable  degree  of  mental  power  is  compatible 
with  a  feeble  body,  but,  in  general,  the  old  obser- 
vation "mens  sana  in  corpore  sano"  holds  good. 
At  present  the  bodily  state  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race 
is  being  influenced  strongly  in  two  opposite  direc- 
tions by  a  condition  incidental  to  modern  civiliza- 
tion. On  the  one  hand,  the  science  of  living  has 
improved  so  much  as  to  make  it  possible  for  those 
with  knowledge  and  self-control  to  better  their 
chances  of  keeping  vigorous  bodies;  on  the  other 
hand,  competition  is  increasingly  fierce  in  business, 
and  a  larger  proportion  of  population  is  all  the  time 
accumulating  in  the  large  cities  under  conditions 
that  make  out-of-door  life  more  and  more  difficult  to 
obtain.  If  we  judge  by  studying  the  death  rates  and 
the  expectation  of  life  at  different  ages,  it  is  unde- 
niable that  in  the  past  fifty  years  there  has  been  a 
growing  tendency  to  prolong  life.  Prolongation  of  life 
perhaps  means  increased  vigor,  but  not  necessarily, 

288 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE  289 

because  the  gain  in  life  may  be  due  in  a  large  degree 
to  better  methods  of  preventing  the  spread  of  infec- 
tious diseases,  or  controlling  them  when  they  have 
gained  a  footing.  It  is  extremely  difficult  to  prove 
that  the  average  physical  vigor  and  efficiency  of  the 
population  are  actually  heightened  by  a  decrease  in 
the  death  rate,  but  it  is  likely  that  there  is  some 
change  in  this  direction.  The  effect  of  the  generally 
improved  hygienic  surroundings  is  being  neutralized 
by  the  increasing  proportion  of  people  who  live  in 
large  cities  under  unfavorable  physical  conditions. 
An  illustration  of  the  deterioration  arising  in  a  great 
city  obtruded  itself  on  London  during  the  Boer  War, 
when  it  was  found  that  a  surprisingly  large  propor- 
tion of  the  offering  recruits  were  physically  unsound, 
not  so  much  from  definite  disease  as  from  various 
forms  of  underdevelopment  and  feebleness  due  to 
malnutrition.  Though  it  is  difficult  to  predict  the 
outcome  of  these  warring  tendencies  for  good  and 
evil  upon  the  health  and  efficiency  of  nations,  one 
important  fact  is  nevertheless  clear :  the  ultimate 
result  is  largely  in  the  control  of  the  individuals  that 
make  up  the  community.  Never  before  has  it  been 
possible  for  the  citizens  of  a  country  to  exert  so  tell- 
ing an  influence  in  the  right  direction  by  the  intelli- 
gent exercise  of  will  power,  since  the  knowledge  of 
what  makes  for  health  and  strength  is  to-day  fuller 
and  more  accessible  than  at  any  previous  time. 
Moreover,  local  and  central  governments  are  every- 
where awakening  to  the  necessity  for  intervening  in 


290   BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

various  practical  ways  to  protect  people  against  the 
more  obvious  causes  of  infectious  disease.  But 
mere  knowledge  of  the  causes  of  disease  on  the  part 
of  the  people  and  wise  health  regulations  on  the 
part  of  the  government  will  not  necessarily  suffice  to 
improve  the  average  bodily  efficiency  of  the  mem- 
bers of  the  community.  To  secure  this  it  is  essential 
that  there  should  be  intelligent  and  continued  efforts 
on  the  part  of  a  large  percentage  of  the  population 
to  practice  self-control  in  regard  to  many  habits  of 
life  that  cannot  fall  within  the  scope  of  even  the  most 
paternal  government.  The  physical  health  of  the 
human  race  is,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  under  the 
control  of  the  people  themselves.  There  can  be 
little  reasonable  doubt  that  a  far  more  hardy  and 
enduring  race  is  capable  of  deliberate  development. 
It  remains  to  be  seen  whether  the  individuals  who 
constitute  nations  will  make  the  necessary  sacrifices 
to  bring  about  this  improvement. 

The  theory  of  evolution  indicates  that  man 
emerged  in  distant  times  as  the  king  of  animal  forms 
after  a  long  period  of  development  in  which  all 
competitors  became  gradually  separated  by  an  im- 
mense gap.  The  lead  so  gained  over  other  animal 
life  is  so  great  in  respect  to  bodily  structure  and 
mental  endowment  as  to  make  it  unthinkable  that 
man  should  ever  be  displaced  by  forms  descended 
from  types  now  inferior  to  him.  The  developmental 
contest  is  now  one  between  different  races  of  men, 
and  it  is  evident  that  certain  nations,  especially  the 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE    291 

Germanic  and  Anglo-Saxon,  have  gained  a  material 
advantage  over  other  nations.  This  advantage  is 
the  product  of  numerous  factors,  including  physical 
vigor,  powers  of  reproduction,  intellectual  power, 
and  ideals  of  life.  Although  at  present  the  suprem- 
acy of  these  races  is  not  threatened  by  other  races, 
the  maintenance  of  this  supremacy  cannot  safely  be 
viewed  as  a  permanent  asset  of  any  group  of  nations. 
The  quaUties  that  secure  dominance  to  modern  na- 
tions have  been  somewhat  modified  by  the  condi- 
tions of  modern  civilization,  and  there  is  every  reason 
to  think  that  the  modifying  processes  now  in  play 
will  long  continue  operative.  Supremacy  still  de- 
pends on  the  likelihood  of  waging  war  successfully 
against  rivals,  but  this  element  is  no  longer  so  promi- 
nent as  it  was.  Success  in  commerce,  rather  than 
territorial  or  political  gain,  is  now  the  goal  of  compet- 
ing nations,  and  this  type  of  success  depends  upon 
industrial  productiveness  more  than  on  warlike 
qualities.  The  success  of  industry  depends  on  scien- 
tific knowledge,  on  ingenuity  in  applying  this  knowl- 
edge, on  assiduity  and  inteUigence  in  technical  work. 
These  are  qualities  that  call  for  a  different  training 
and  different  ideals  from  those  of  military  life. 
Factory  life  makes  greater  demands  on  physique 
than  life  in  the  barracks,  and  when  unregulated,  is 
capable  of  lowering  the  physical  vitality  of  the 
nation.  Yet  the  conditions  of  factory  life  are  in 
general  so  controllable  as  to  make  the  maintenance 
of  physical  health  possible,  even  where  workmen  are 


292    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

exposed  to  poison,  as  in  the  case  of  the  color  works 
in  Germany.  And  it  is  probable  that  nations  could 
pass  from  a  militant  condition  into  a  condition  of 
greater  and  greater  industrialism  without  any- 
material  sacrifice  of  physical  vigor. 

The  bodily  welfare  of  nations  is  of  interest  mainly 
in  its  relation  to  their  mental  and  moral  growth.  It 
is  certain  that  under  more  favorable  social  conditions 
nations  would  be  capable  of  extending  a  higher  grade 
of  culture  to  a  far  larger  proportion  of  the  total 
population  than  at  present.  Although  the  desira- 
bility of  doing  this  is  questioned  by  some,  there  is 
surely  no  excuse  for  withholding  from  people  their 
chance  of  self-development  or  any  part  of  that 
chance  that  may  fall  to  their  lot.  Every  human 
being  has  the  right  to  cultivate  his  powers  to  the 
highest  point  he  is  capable  of  reaching,  so  long  as  he 
does  not  interfere  with  the  right  of  other  people  to  do 
the  same  —  a  kind  of  interference  about  which  the 
world  hears  fierce  complaints.  And  we  may  confi- 
dently expect  the  leading  nations  of  the  world  to 
increase  their  commercial  and  political  influence  by 
the  general  extension  of  educational  opportunity  to 
the  masses.  That  the  minds  of  all  classes  but  the 
very  lowest  are  susceptible  of  far  greater  training 
than  at  present,  both  intellectually,  emotionally, 
and  aesthetically,  requires  no  argument. 

But  the  civilization  of  a  nation  does  not  acquire 
its  distinctive  character  from  mediocre  minds. 
Saint-Simon,  the  socialistic    philosopher,  long    ago 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE   RACE    293 

pointed  out  the  dire  consequences  that  must  result 
for  France  should  her  chief  thinking  and  productive 
men,  engineers,  lawyers,  physicians,  scientists,  — 
a  small  number,  —  be  removed  from  the  kingdom. 
At  the  same  time  he  incurred  poUtical  disfavor  and 
was  banished  for  suggesting  how  easily  the  country 
might  dispense  with  the  services  of  an  equal  number 
of  courtiers,  nobles,  and  royal  personages.  There  is 
no  doubt  as  to  the  reasonableness  of  Saint-Simon's 
main  contention  that  the  leading  minds  of  a  country, 
the  minds  which  determine  the  lines  of  progress,  are 
relatively  few,  and  that  the  loss  of  this  intellectual 
aristocracy  would  cripple  any  community  for  many 
a  year.  Our  interest  thus  focuses  on  this  upper 
stratum  of  minds  when  we  undertake  to  picture  the 
future  mental  powers  of  our  race.  Is  it  possible  to 
increase  the  capacity  of  the  human  mind  by  the 
processes  of  evolution  ?  Is  there  any  evidence  that 
the  best  minds  of  to-day  are  superior  in  quahty  to  the 
best  minds  of  the  earhest  historic  times  ?  Unfortu- 
nately the  data  at  command  do  not  allow  the  forma- 
tion of  a  wholly  satisfactory  judgment  on  these  ques- 
tions. If  it  be  true  that  man  has  evolved  from 
lower  forms  of  animal  life,  mental  evolution  must 
have  been  a  feature  of  this  upward  progress,  but 
when  we  try  to  compare  the  best  minds  of  the  pres- 
ent day  with  those  of  a  few  thousand  years  ago,  we 
are  confronted  by  serious  difficulty  in  making  any 
rehable  comparison,  mainly  because  it  is  impossible 
to  represent  to  ourselves  similar  minds  operating 


294    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

under  conditions  so  different  as  those  of  to-day, 
and  those  of  the  period  of  the  Rameses  or  of  Alex- 
ander. The  great  superiority  of  the  conditions  of 
to-day  for  mental  development  gives  us  the  impres- 
sion that  the  best  modern  Germanic  minds  show  more 
capacity  than  the  best  Teutonic  minds  of  the  times 
of  Suetonius.  There  is,  however,  no  proof  that  this 
is  really  so.  We  can  merely  guess  and  hope  that  in 
the  general  tendency  of  man  to  ameliorate  the  brain 
has  had  its  share.  The  improvement  in  the  general 
level  of  intelligence  should  not  make  us  overconfi- 
dent of  the  growth  of  maximal  understanding.  If 
there  be  a  tendency  toward  the  betterment  of  the 
lowest  minds,  that  is,  of  those  least  able  to  voice  the 
feeling  of  the  infinite  and  abstract,  it  is  at  best  a 
slow  and  hesitant  tendency.  We  have  no  right  to 
assume  that  the  mental  and  moral  progress  of  any 
nation  must  continue.  The  best  minds  of  any  race 
may  grow  less  numerous  in  response  to  decadent 
physical  changes  liable  at  any  time  to  assert  them- 
selves ;  and  this  lowering  of  the  highest  levels  would 
be  apt  to  coincide  with  a  decline  in  the  general  level 
of  capacity.  But  it  is  reasonable  for  us  to  take  an 
optimistic  view  of  the  possibilities  open  to  the 
human  mind,  to  believe  that  at  least  some  races,  by 
struggle  and  self-culture,  may  conserve  and  develop 
natural  powers  in  their  chosen  few,  distinctly  superior 
to  any  that  have  yet  left  their  record  in  the  world. 
Our  conception  of  the  universe  is  limited  by  the  re- 
strictions of  the  most  capacious  and  intuitive  minds 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTUKE  OF  THE  RACE  295 

that  have  yet  been  our  teachers.  May  we  not  hope 
to  deepen  and  extend  that  conception  through  the 
medium  of  still  better  nervous  systems  than  any 
which  have  yet  been  produced? 

If  it  be  true  that  mind  is  a  function  of  the  refined 
type  of  matter  which  we  call  nerve  tissue,  the  central 
problem  for  man  is  the  care  and  development  and 
intelligent  control  of  that  precious  and  infinitely 
complex  substance.  In  the  language  of  physiology 
the  legitimate  aim  of  the  race  is  the  education  of  the 
highest  nervous  centers  of  the  organism  that  sub- 
serve consciousness.  All  other  aims  are  secondary 
and  base.  Nature  has  been  lavish  in  its  supply  of  raw 
material,  but  man  has  been  wasteful  and  careless  in 
his  use  of  the  big  opportunities  offered  by  her.  Only 
sporadically  have  there  appeared  centers  of  syste- 
matic effort  to  utilize  the  possibilities  of  mental  and 
moral  growth,  such  as  the  churches  and  the  univer- 
sities. Fortunately  every  family  and  every  aggre- 
gation of  men  is,  in  a  sense,  a  school,  and  the  world 
knows  that  genius  has  repeatedly  appeared  in  the 
midst  of  disorganization  and  poverty,  and  well 
knows  that  this  will  continue  to  the  end  of  time, 
since  genius  is  in  the  biological  meaning  of  the  word 
a  ''sport"  unpredictable  in  the  conditions  of  its 
emergence.  Yet  the  organization  of  the  school  and 
university  is  an  enormous  stimulus  to  talent,  and 
even  genius  cannot  wholly  dispense  with  this  aid, 
without  at  least  some  loss  in  energy. 

It  appears  superficially  as  if  nature  were  even 


296    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

more  unfair  in  the  distribution  of  her  natural  gifts 
than  is  really  the  case,  and  looking  at  the  mass  of 
unendowed  humanity,  the  philosopher  may  be  hard- 
pressed  for  an  explanation  and  justification  of  so 
many  hves  of  so  little  promise.  But  there  may  be 
discerned  in  these  masses  of  men  and  women  some 
elements  of  compensation  and  grandeur  in  the  larger 
uses  which  they  subserve.  For  are  they  not  the  ma- 
terial from  which  talent  and  genius  are  recruited, 
at  least  in  large  degree  ?  The  wealthy  and  fortunate 
classes,  having  appropriated  the  ordinary  prizes, 
are  off  their  guard  at  least  to  the  extent  that  they 
relax  in  the  developmental  struggle  to  which  they 
owe  their  success.  Their  children  are  likewise  dis- 
armed in  the  silent  competition  of  mental  ascendency. 
The  hard-worked  people,  of  modest  or  unrecognized 
abilities,  inured  to  daily  sacrifices,  under  the  unre- 
lenting spur  of  necessity,  are  culture  media  for 
human  selection.  In  this  wise  do  the  humble  make 
their  contribution  to  the  progress  of  the  world's 
aristocracy  of  nervous  systems,  a  few  great  minds 
being  always  in  process  of  emergence  from  the 
undistinguished  masses.  For  these  human  contri- 
butions they  are  repaid  by  the  help  they  derive  from 
the  great  men  they  have  helped  to  raise.  And  so  the 
cycle  repeats  itself  —  the  few  of  great  gifts  leading 
and  elevating  the  many,  the  many  contributing  to 
replenish  the  small  ranks  of  the  greatly  gifted  who 
have  learned  to  use  their  gifts. 

The  problem  of  education  is  humanity's  greatest 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE    297 

problem,  as  it  always  has  been  and  always  will  be. 
Modern  society,  rendered  more  and  more  self-con- 
scious and  analytical  through  the  intervention  of 
science,  is  growing  slowly  and  very  certainly  to  recog- 
nize the  gravity  of  its  problem.  Very  slowly,  too, 
it  is  learning  to  solve  it,  not  as  a  problem  in  its 
entirety,  but  fractionally,  one-sidedly,  with  much 
painful  experimentation,  with  many  rebuffs,  and  a 
few  permanent  successes.  If  it  be  true  that  the 
future  of  any  nation  may  be  profoundly  influenced 
for  good  or  for  evil  by  the  dehberate  strivings  and 
aims  of  its  people,  it  must  follow  that  these  strivings 
and  aims  afford  at  any  period  a  reliable  index  of  the 
general  trend  of  progress  or  regression.  So,  too,  if 
we  would  give  direction  to  human  progress,  we  must 
do  so  by  the  slow  and  moulding  processes  of  educa- 
tion of  the  nervous  system  rather  than  by  the  super- 
ficial and  time-serving  legislation  to  which  resort 
is  often  made  for  the  purpose  of  correcting  evils  or 
evoking  virtues.  But  the  mass  of  any  nation  is  made 
up  of  persons  little  given  to  thought,  eager  to  secure 
quick  results,  impatient  of  the  slow  methods  of  nature 
and  education.  They  are  thus  a  ready  prey  to  the 
quackery  of  legislation  as  to  the  quackery  of  drugs, 
as  we  see  only  too  plainly  in  democratic  countries, 
where  the  ignorant  and  the  inteUigent,  the  vicious 
and  the  good,  have  votes  of  equal  value. 

If  the  processes  of  education  were  simple  and  eas- 
ily apprehended,  educators  and  philosophers  would 
doubtless  have  succeeded  better  than  they  have  in 


298    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

their  efforts  toward  uplifting  humanity  by  enhght- 
ened  training.  But  these  processes  are  complex  in  a 
degree  commensurate  with  the  unparalleled  com- 
plexity of  nervous  functions,  and  hence  both  theory 
and  practice  have  been  laggards,  and  the  wisest  of 
men  have  studied  the  educational  task  one-sidedly 
and  without  agreement  among  themselves.  And  so 
long  as  men  differ  in  temperament  as  well  as  in 
powers  of  apprehension,  they  will  differ  in  their 
recommendations  as  to  what  we  should  strive  to 
attain  in  education  and  as  to  the  means  of  attain- 
ing every  worthy  end. 

In  thinking  of  tendencies  it  has  seemed  to  me  that 
we  have  too  much  neglected  some  obvious  suggestions 
given  us  by  Nature  herself.  The  educational  sug- 
gestions to  which  I  would  draw  attention  have  their 
basis  in  the  biological  substrata  of  our  nature  —  in 
the  differences  between  the  self-preservative  and  the 
sexual  instincts.  The  recognition  of  the  needs  of 
developing  human  nature  involves  an  insight  into 
these  different  biological  springs  of  activity  and  func- 
tion. Has  not  this  insight  and  understanding  been 
too  often  lacking  in  the  minds  of  educators,  and  has 
not  this  led  to  confusion  and  obscurity  in  consider- 
ing the  aims  and  methods  of  education  ?  We  must 
not  try  to  make  an  absolute  separation,  since  Nature 
herself  fuses  these  instincts,  but  shall  we  not  learn 
to  trace  and  understand  and  nurture  them  separately  ? 

The  line  of  development  of  intellect  is  suggested 
by  the  line  of  progress  in  a  savage,  i.e.  qualities  are 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OP  THE  RACE    299 

cultivated  that  aid  in  self-preservation.  Even  in 
civilized  life  this  line  is  paramount,  for  the  chief  ac- 
tivities of  the  man  and  woman  are  expended  in  the 
direction  of  maintaining  self.  What  qualifications 
are  needed  for  this  ?  Mainly  observation,  accurate 
and  quick,  good  memory,  power  of  generalization 
sufficient  to  distinguish  between  that  which  is  favor- 
able to  self  and  that  which  is  not ;  this  is  partly  an 
instinctive  faculty,  partly  acquired,  but  it  can  be 
acquired  to  a  high  degree.  Ingenuity  in  adapting 
means  to  an  end  is  a  prominent  feature  of  this  self- 
preservative  development.  Even  in  civifized  men 
the  qualities  sought  for  success  are  not  so  different 
from  those  of  the  savage  state.  The  development  of 
observation,  of  memory,  and  of  the  power  of  generali- 
zation for  the  sake  of  increased  personal  satisfaction 
is  at  present  the  aim  of  the  few ;  but  there  is  no 
reason  why  it  should  not  become  the  aim  of  many 
more  as  the  interest  of  society  turns  more  and  more 
strongly  towards  self-improvement  —  not  for  mere 
self-preservation,  but  for  other  purely  selfish  aims. 
The  motive  for  this  improvement  is  apt  to  be  in  part 
contributed  by  certain  elements  of  sexual  origin 
which  we  may  consider  later.  It  is  sufficient  to 
consider  here,  very  sketchily,  some  aspects  of  the 
power  of  observation,  memory,  and  the  faculty  of 
generalization,  without  special  reference  to  the  uses 
to  which  they  are  to  be  put  —  whether  they  be  of 
the  higher  or  lower  sort. 

The  ability  to  observe  is  a  power  which  grows  by 


300    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

use  from  infancy  to  old  age,  and  is  limited  mainly  by 
the  fatigue  or  the  physical  imperfection  of  the  senses. 
The  capacity  to  observe  is  not  the  same  in  all  persons, 
for  some  persons  are  endowed  by  nature  with  finer 
and  quicker  receptive  mechanisms  than  are  others. 
We  all  remember  the  celebrated  case  of  Robert 
Houdin,  the  French  prestidigitator,  who  systemati- 
cally trained  his  son  to  note  with  great  rapidity  and 
accuracy  large  numbers  of  objects,  exposed  in  shop 
windows,  in  rooms,  etc.  The  response  of  the  brain 
to  this  method  of  training  is  something  astonishing, 
and  all  children  should  have  some  training  of  this 
kind,  although  it  is  only  rarely  advisable  to  push  it 
to  the  extreme  sought  by  Houdin.  Very  intelligent 
persons  overlook  much  that  is  of  interest  and  often 
of  real  importance  to  them  simply  from  defective 
training  in  observation,  and  it  is  certain  that  teachers 
would  do  well  to  attach  more  importance  to  helping 
pupils  to  note  more  of  the  objects  with  which  the 
world  fairly  bristles.  It  is  not  in  order  to  use 
this  faculty  on  all  occasions  that  it  should  be  ac- 
quired ;  it  is  to  have  it  at  call  as  a  means  to  an  end, 
or  as  a  pleasure  in  itself.  Some  persons  with  excel- 
lent powers  of  observation  may  prefer  to  be  occupied 
with  their  thoughts;  if  they  do  not  observe,  it  is 
because  they  prefer  not  to,  not  because  they  cannot. 
And  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  ability  to  inhibit 
observation  at  will  is  as  important  to  the  educated 
man  or  woman  as  the  faculty  of  highly  trained  ob- 
servation. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE  301 

If  we  admit  the  importance  of  a  systematic  habit 
of  observation  in  education,  it  is  plain  that  the 
admission  brings  important  conclusions  and  exten- 
sions with  it.  The  child  may  grow  skilled  in  noting 
the  main  features  of  common  and  complex  objects 
—  the  contents  of  the  shop  window,  the  styles  of 
architecture,  the  needs  and  habits  of  dogs,  and  the 
forms  and  colors  of  flowers.  Yet  none  of  these  things 
is  sufficiently  simple  and  elementary  to  be  satisfy- 
ing and  educationally  adequate.  The  growing  mind 
must  become  acquainted  with  more  elementary 
materials  and  objects,  with  water,  ice,  air,  coal,  iron, 
etc. ;  must  learn  their  properties  and  must  learn  to 
measure  and  weigh.  In  other  words,  the  basis 
of  observation  should  be,  in  part  at  least,  of  such  a 
nature  as  will  involve  manipulation,  and  this  use  of 
the  hands  to  subserve  accurate  observation,  when 
combined  with  memory  and  reasoning,  may  be  so 
extended  as  to  make  the  introduction  to  the  art  of 
experimentation  in  elementary  physical  science. 

It  is  neither  a  harsh  nor  an  imjust  criticism  to  say 
that  the  place  which  should  be  occupied  in  education 
by  accurate  observation  is  now  occupied  by  arbitrary 
acts  of  memory.  For  memory,  so  active  and  cul- 
tivable in  the  young,  is  still  the  main  reUance  of  the 
pedagogue,  sometimes  the  exclusive  reliance.  The 
young  scholar  is  plied  with  books.  Spread  before 
him  is  a  vast  array  of  facts,  to  be  learned  definitely, 
arbitrarily  —  the  rules  of  grammar,  the  conjugation 
of  verbs,  the  position  of  dots  (said  to  indicate  towns 


302    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

and  cities)  on  maps,  innumerable  dates  relating  to 
kings  and  perhaps  their  mistresses  and  to  unintelli- 
gible wars,  many  a  line  of  poetry,  half  apprehended, 
many  a  rule  of  arithmetic  or  algebra,  not  at  all 
understood.  I  will  not  say  that  arbitrary  acts  of 
memory  are  not  necessary  to  the  training  of  the 
scholar.  No  one  can  hope  to  acquire  the  multiplica- 
tion table  by  an  entirely  rational  and  experimental 
process,  or  correct  English  without  some  pure  grind 
of  memory.  But  it  is  fair  to  say  that  there  is  far 
too  much  abuse  of  the  powers  of  memory  in  child- 
hood for  the  purpose  of  inculcating  unrelated  and  ill- 
assorted  facts.  This  abuse  means  pedantry,  the 
nature  of  which,  expressed  in  the  terms  of  psychology, 
is  the  accumulation  of  mental  impressions  with 
deficient  associations.  The  reason  for  this  educa- 
tional practice  is  plain.  It  is  much  easier  to  secure 
the  sort  of  pedagogic  talent  that  can  teach  from  a 
book  where  everything  is  put  down  in  black  and 
white  than  to  teach  from  objects.  To  teach  from 
objects  calls  for  ingenuity  and  adaptability  on  the 
part  of  the  teacher,  and  these  qualities  are  not  easy 
to  secure.  Sooner  or  later  the  parents  of  children 
will  demand  these  qualities,  and  the  managers  of 
schools  will  see  the  necessity  for  supplying  them. 
Some  arbitrary  memorizing  cannot  be  excluded,  but 
its  extent  can  be  greatly  curtailed.  The  change  to 
more  rational  objective  methods  will  be  welcomed  by 
pupils ;  and  the  teacher  will  find  many  supposedly  dull 
scholars  more  apt  than  he  had  thought  them. 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE    303 

For  the  development  of  intellect,  it  is  necessary 
that  observation  and  memory  be  vitalized  by  reason. 
Without  the  power  of  linking  facts  by  seeing  relations 
between  them  the  man  of  learning  remains  barren. 
As  a  mere  repository  of  information,  he  must  always 
remain  inferior  to  even  a  mediocre  encyclopedia. 
The  schools  have  always  laid  too  much  stress  on  the 
value  of  facts,  and  too  little  on  the  paramount  ne- 
cessity of  correlating  them  and  thus  making  them 
serve  the  purpose  of  leading  to  new  conclusions  and 
fresh  points  of  view.  The  universities  and  profes- 
sional schools  share  this  fault  with  the  primary  and 
secondary  schools.  The  difficulty  in  securing  teach- 
ers who  can  educate  in  the  sense  of  teaching  their 
pupils  to  think  for  themselves  has  always  been  great, 
and  the  reason  is  obvious.  The  capacity  to  see  facts 
in  new  relations  means  originality  and  soundness  in 
thought  and  the  ability  to  see  the  trend  of  events. 
The  men  who  possess  these  qualities  in  high  degree 
are  either  attracted  to  the  active  walks  of  life  which 
promise  large  material  rewards,  or  they  seek  the 
opportunities  for  research.  In  either  case  they  are 
apt  to  be  repelled  by  the  routine  of  teaching,  and 
either  do  not  teach  at  all  or  teach  somewhat  grudg- 
ingly. Sometimes  a  man  of  superior  ability  with  a 
love  for  teaching  remains  a  teacher  during  many 
years,  but  the  number  of  such  persons  is  always  far 
too  small  for  the  needs  of  the  rising  generation. 
There  is  considerable  truth  in  Shaw's  cynical  remark, 
"Those  who  can,  do;  those  who  can't,  teach." 


304    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

The  long  controversy  as  to  the  relative  merits  of 
the  scientific  and  classical  studies  as  training  for  the 
intellect  is  not  yet  closed,  and  perhaps  never  will  be, 
since  temperamental  leanings  govern  the  tendencies 
even  of  pedagogues.  The  partisan  of  the  classical 
training  sees  in  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages,  with 
their  intricate  grammars  (forcing  as  they  do  a  syn- 
thetic and  constructive  attitude  of  mind),  a  stimulus 
to  the  development  of  logical  methods  of  thought. 
The  advocate  of  the  scientific  training  urges  the 
necessity  of  pursuing  studies  that  deal  with  the  rela- 
tions of  numbers  and  with  the  observation  of  natural 
phenomena  and  the  properties  of  matter.  Culture 
and  valuable  training  may  be  got  through  either  the 
classical  or  the  scientific  channel.  There  is,  however, 
a  radical  difference  of  quality  which  cannot  be  over- 
looked. The  mind  of  the  classical  student,  while 
engaged  in  acquiring  technique,  is  bent  on  the  study 
of  intricacies  invented  by  human  ingenuity.  The 
mind  of  the  scientific  student,  on  the  other  hand,  is 
focused  on  Nature  herself.  The  study  of  declensions 
and  conjugations  and  the  relation  of  the  parts  of 
speech  affords  an  admirable  discipline,  but  it  repre- 
sents arbitrarily  created  problems.  The  mastery  of 
the  difficulties  of  syntax  and  grammar  throws  no 
light  on  the  methods  of  nature  and  is,  therefore,  no 
preparation  for  the  understanding  of  life.  But  a 
knowledge  of  the  material  universe,  of  the  common 
properties  of  matter,  and  of  the  forces  everywhere  in 
play  is  the  basis  for  an  insight  into  the  occurrences 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE  305 

of  which  daily  Ufe  is  made  up.  For  the  reason,  then, 
that  science  brings  us  nearer  to  nature,  the  training 
of  the  child  in  the  elements  of  science  is  to  be  pre- 
ferred to  the  training  in  the  classics  as  a  help  to  deal- 
ing with  the  realities  of  the  living  world.  It  is  no 
rash  prophecy  that  people  will  grow  to  see  this  more 
and  more  clearly,  and  that  an  increasing  preference 
will  be  given  to  the  direct  study  of  nature  and  espe- 
cially to  physics  and  chemistry  with  so  much  mathe- 
matics as  is  necessary  to  make  the  elements  of  these 
sciences  intelligible. 

It  will  be  seen  more  and  more  clearly  that  in  the 
training  of  the  intellect  the  three  cardinal  objects  are  : 
observation,  memory,  and  the  welding  power  of 
reason.  The  schools  of  to-day  rely  mainly  on  mem- 
ory ;  the  schools  of  the  future  will  summon  to  their 
aid  observation  and  practice  in  inductive  and  deduc- 
tive reasoning.  On  this  power  of  reasoning  the 
faculty  of  judgment  depends,  and  on  the  exercise  of 
this  faculty  hangs  the  maintenance  of  life  and  the 
productiveness  of  the  mind.  Before  a  school  can 
become  truly  educational  it  must  develop  in  the  high- 
est possible  degree  the  ability  to  lead  the  scholar 
from  the  facts  he  has  observed  and  remembered  to 
larger  facts  as  yet  unknown  to  him.  In  this  process, 
which  must  become  a  habit  of  mind,  lies  the  spirit 
of  research. 

It  will  be  said  that  research  is  for  the  few  and  not 
for  the  many ;  that  the  ordinary  scholar  has  naught 
to  do  with  the  spirit  of  science.     But  while  it  is  true 


306    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

that  the  number  of  highly  trained  research  scientists 
will  always  be  small,  it  is  a  grave  and  costly  error 
to  maintain  that  the  spirit  of  research  is  not  possible 
or  desirable  for  the  many.  For  it  is  true  that  no  two 
lives,  however  humble,  are  alike;  that  every  man 
must  face  and  solve  his  individual  problems.  For 
him  the  spirit  of  research  will  be  a  help  in  solving 
those  problems  by  making  him  far  more  intelligent 
and  adaptable  and  self-controlled  than  would  other- 
wise be  the  case.  In  order  to  be  of  real  service,  the 
spirit  of  research  must  have  become  a  habit  of  mind, 
and  this  can  only  happen  where  there  has  been  sound 
training  in  the  elementary  data  of  science,  and  in 
generalization  from  them.  It  is  hardly  to  be 
expected  that  such  training  will  ever  become  the 
privilege  of  the  mass  of  the  populace,  but  there  is 
every  reason  to  think  it  will  in  time  be  extended  to  a 
much  larger  proportion  of  the  population  than  now 
receive  it.  The  benefits  of  such  training  will  be  not 
merely  the  better  development  of  intellect,  but  the 
fuller  growth  of  character.  Where  it  is  possible  for 
a  child  to  have  the  advantage  that  comes  from  a 
classical  training,  this  should  certainly  not  be 
excluded ;  but,  in  general,  where  a  choice  has  to  be 
made  between  the  scientific  and  the  classical,  the 
former  is  to  be  relied  on  as  a  superior  guide  to  the 
unraveling  of  many  of  the  perplexities  of  life. 

It  may  happen  that  the  training  of  the  intellect 
is  so  conducted  as  to  make  this  education  an  efficient 
help  in  most  of  the  relations  of  life  that  have  to  do 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE  307 

with  self-preservation.  It  may  teach  the  care  of 
the  body  and  may  render  it  easy  to  gain  an  ample 
livelihood,  or  its  benefits  may  extend  beyond  the 
consunomation  of  the  self-preservative  instinct  as  in 
leading  to  discoveries  in  science  or  useful  inventions 
or  improved  methods  in  finance.  But  there  are 
other  phases  of  development  that  may  be  little 
affected  by  the  education  of  the  intellect,  however 
admirably  this  may  have  been  accomphshed  through 
the  training  of  observation,  memory,  and  reason. 
The  emotional  side  of  a  nature  may  lag  behind, 
despite  the  growth  of  intellect,  and,  in  general,  those 
activities  of  the  mind  which  have  an  intimate  rela- 
tion to  the  sexual  or  racial  instinct  may  be  relatively 
unutilized.  This  retardation  or  arrest  of  the  devel- 
opment of  one  very  important  aspect  of  human 
personality  may  give  a  one-sided  character  to  the 
nature  of  an  individual.  I  do  not  hold  that  it  fre- 
quently happens  that  there  is  an  extreme  disparity 
in  the  education  of  the  intellect  and  of  the  sexually 
based  emotions.  Such  a  disparity  does  not  com- 
monly arise,  because  there  are  many  unintended 
casual  human  experiences,  outside  the  education  of 
school  or  tutor,  which  call  out  reactions  on  the  emo- 
tional side  of  consciousness.  What  I  do  claim  is  that 
the  sexually  based  emotions  are  commonly  over- 
looked in  any  scheme  of  education  (either  because 
they  have  been  traditionally  ignored,  or  because 
they  are  inconvenient  and  puzzling  to  deal  with), 
and  that  this  is  a  serious  mistake.    The  mistake 


308    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

arises  from  the  fact  that  these  emotions  represent  a 
fundamental  and  essential  biological  fact,  —  the 
necessity  of  maintaining  the  species,  —  and  that  to 
ignore  it  in  education  is  to  overlook  a  force  powerful 
for  good  or  evil,  and  hence  dangerous  to  pass  by. 

I  do  not  consider  it  possible  to  formulate  in  an 
academic  manner  any  general  rules  for  the  education 
of  the  sexually  based  emotions,  for  the  reason  that 
the  psychology  of  these  emotions  is  as  yet  too  little 
understood.  Yet  it  is  possible  for  us  to  begin  to 
think  of  this  subject  as  one  worthy  of  the  recogni- 
tion of  parents  and  educators. 

Before  the  ripening  of  the  sexual  glands,  that  is, 
before  the  time  of  puberty,  the  question  of  directing 
and  educating  the  sexual  instinct  and  the  emotions 
based  on  it  can  hardly  be  said  to  arise.  But  with  the 
physical  maturity  of  boy  or  girl  definite  and  complex 
problems  arise  in  an  almost  abrupt  manner.  The 
outward  signals  that  this  time  has  arrived  are  char- 
acteristic for  each  sex,  but  boy  and  girl  have  at  least 
one  psychical  feature  in  common  —  the  growth  of  a 
new  emotional  life.  This  emotional  life  finds  expres- 
sion in  a  decline  in  interest  in  ordinary  amusements 
and  occupations,  and  a  corresponding  growth  of 
interest  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  relations  of  the 
sexes,  to  courtship,  love,  marriage,  social  functions, 
etc.  There  is  often  a  distinct  lack  of  stability  of  the 
nervous  system  at  this  time,  an  increased  self-con- 
sciousness, and  a  disposition  to  take  a  more  serious, 
and  often  a  more  egotistical,  view  of  life.     There  is 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE    309 

usually  also  a  distinct  growth  of  intellectual  power, 
which  may  have  its  origin  in  part  in  the  action  of 
some  internal  secretion  of  the  sexual  glands  on  the 
nutrition  of  the  nervous  substance.  In  these  various 
changes  incidental  to  puberty  there  Ues  the  basis  of 
a  distinct  educational  problem. 

With  the  onset  of  puberty,  and  frequently  even 
before  this  period,  there  awakens  an  interest  in  all 
matters  having  to  do  with  the  sexual  functions.  In 
each  sex  there  are  recurrent  signs  of  the  maturation 
of  the  generative  organs,  which  cannot  be  ignored 
and  which  naturally  cause  the  adolescent  mind  to  be 
more  or  less  occupied  with  the  reproductive  func- 
tions. The  effect  of  these  obtrusive  physiological 
signals  on  consciousness  is  not  the  same  in  different 
persons,  but  depends  upon  the  individual  type  of 
nervous  system,  and  especially  on  the  grade  of  in- 
telligence, the  type  of  sensibility,  and  the  character 
of  the  inhibitions.  In  one  adolescent,  the  sensibilities 
are  so  slight  and  the  imagination  so  little  active 
that  the  phenomena  of  sexual  maturation  are  taken 
casually,  with  little  or  no  disturbance  of  mental 
equilibrium,  and  no  tendency  to  experiment  with  the 
newly  developed  powers.  In  another,  the  sensi- 
bilities are  more  active,  and  the  sexual  processes 
enter  on  the  field  of  consciousness  with  greater 
obtrusiveness.  Here  there  is  necessarily  a  stronger 
tendency  to  liberate  the  sexual  reflexes,  and  the 
failure  to  deliberately  indulge  the  sexual  appetite 
is  due  to  the  intelligent  obedience  to  an  instinctive 


310    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

sense  of  propriety  —  or  to  put  it  in  the  language  of 
physiology,  to  the  control  of  lower  nervous  centers 
by  the  inhibitory  action  of  higher  ones.  In  cases  of 
this  sort,  which  represent  common  conditions  among 
civilized  peoples,  this  restraint  of  the  lower  by  the 
higher  centers  is  not  accomplished  without  recurrent 
struggles,  sometimes  of  an  extremely  trying  kind. 
Finally  there  are  individuals  who  have  nervous 
systems  that  are  hypersensitive  and  in  whom  the 
impulses  that  radiate  from  the  sexual  glands  and 
other  organs  keep  consciousness  much  of  the  time  in 
a  state  of  turbulent  disorder.  Strong  intelligence 
and  strong  inhibitions  are  needed  to  restrain  the 
sexual  reflexes  from  being  put  into  deliberate  action, 
and  if  these  be  inadequate,  there  exist  the  conditions 
that  favor  a  life  in  which  sexual  dissipation  is  a  promi- 
nent feature.  And  thus  it  is  clear  that  the  character 
of  the  nervous  system  is  a  potent  factor  in  deter- 
mining the  tendency  of  the  adolescent  with  respect  to 
sexual  morality.  A  wider  recognition  of  this  fact 
will  help  to  make  people  more  tolerant  of  the  sexual 
errors  of  certain  types  of  persons,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  will  aid  in  strengthening  the  inhibitions  which 
are  required  to  turn  the  scales  in  the  direction  of  a 
reasonable  practice  of  continence. 

It  is  customary  for  parents  and  teachers  to  avoid 
all  reference  to  the  sexual  problems  that  arise  in  their 
children  or  pupils  at  the  time  of  puberty.  The 
reason  which  is  given  for  this  ignoring  of  a  vital  func- 
tion is  that  any  discussion  of  it  will  tend  to  promote 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE  311 

self-consciousness  and  a  detrimental  dwelling  on  a 
subject  which  ought  to  be  kept  in  the  dark.  It  is 
true  that  this  is  in  many  cases  a  prominent  motive 
of  parents  in  ignoring  the  sex  problem.  But  this 
motive  is  often  conjoined  with  another  —  the  pain- 
fulness  to  themselves  of  attempting  to  discuss  a  sub- 
ject so  difficult  and  so  distasteful.  As  a  result  of 
this  attitude  on  the  part  of  parents  their  children  are 
commonly  deprived  of  very  important  help  which 
might  be  given  them.  This  is,  however,  the  very 
point  on  which  people  disagree  —  some  contending 
that  there  is  nothing  to  be  done,  others  holding  that 
the  rational  enhghtenment  of  adolescent  children  is 
almost  certain  to  result  in  benefit  to  them. 

It  is  certain  that  the  nervous  systems  of  some 
young  people  require  more  protection  than  others  in 
the  direction  of  enlightenment  designed  to  bring 
about  a  better  control  of  the  sex  instinct;  it  is 
equally  certain  that  all  normal  nervous  systems  need 
such  help  in  some  degree.  This  help  should  come 
from  the  parents  rather  than  from  hired  teachers, 
but  it  is  better  that  it  should  come  from  teachers 
than  that  it  should  not  come  at  all.  It  should  come 
from  fathers  to  their  sons,  and  from  mothers  to  their 
daughters,  but  if  conditions  do  not  permit  this  ideal 
relation,  the  father  should  be  prepared  to  help  his 
daughter,  or  the  mother  her  son.  And  what  shall 
they  teach,  and  how  shall  they  teach  it  ?  Although 
volumes  might  be  written  in  answer  to  these  ques- 
tions, there  are  a  few  principles  that  may  be  looked 


312    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS   OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

upon  as  safe  guides  to  follow.  One  is  that  the  need 
of  each  child  is  individual,  and  can  only  properly  be 
satisfied  by  a  knowledge  of  his  or  her  personality 
and  intelligence.  Another  is  that  no  intelligent  or 
sincere  question  put  by  the  child  should  be  left 
unanswered  so  far  as  the  parent  is  able  to  answer  it. 
And  while  it  is  in  general  wise  to  discourage  discus- 
sions of  the  grosser  and  more  intense  phases  of  sexual 
passion,  I  would  not  say  that  even  these  are  unfit 
subjects,  provided  the  adolescent  child  has  a  high 
degree  of  intelligence  and  good  moral  intent  (pur- 
pose). Questions  involving  problems  of  sex  are 
often  put  by  children  to  their  parents  long  before  the 
age  of  puberty  is  reached,  and  hence  before  there  is 
need  for  precise  knowledge  of  human  sexual  anatomy 
or  physiology.  Many  wise  parents  introduce  young 
children  to  the  idea  of  sex  by  resorting  to  the  processes 
of  fertilization  in  plants,  and  this  is,  in  many  ways, 
an  admirable  method.  If  such  studies  lead  to  embar- 
rassing interrogations  about  sex  questions  or  relations, 
in  domestic  animals,  as  horses  or  dogs,  these  need  be 
answered  only  in  part,  and  in  a  superficial  yet  truth- 
ful manner,  the  justification  for  this  lying  in  the  fact 
that  fuller  explanations  cannot  be  really  apprehended. 
Lastly,  it  cannot  be  too  strongly  impressed  on  the 
mind  of  every  young  child  that  the  sexual  instinct  is 
in  itself  nothing  to  be  ashamed  of,  but  that  it  is, 
on  the  contrary,  possessed  of  the  highest  biological 
and  sociological  dignity.  At  the  same  time  it  should 
be  made  clear  that  whatever  is  really  shameful 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE  313 

depends  on  the  abuse,  and  not  on  the  right  use  of 
these  functions.  And  it  is  also  wise  to  make  it  clear 
that  the  tendency  to  reticence  in  regard  to  all  that 
concerns  sex  springs  from  the  intensely  personal  char- 
acter of  sexual  experiences,  and  in  this  respect  is  not 
different  from  reticence  in  regard  to  other  intense 
emotional  experiences. 

Whatever  there  may  be  of  truth  and  justice  in 
these  recommendations,  they  tend  to  break  down  in 
practice  on  account  of  the  difficulties  in  carrying  them 
out.  For  it  may  be  justly  asked,  Where  are  the 
parents  to  carry  out  this  kind  of  education  ?  Aside 
from  a  few  exceptionally  cultivated  and  intelligent 
mothers  and  fathers,  there  are  at  present  almost  no 
adults  who  have  had  the  necessary  training  to  give 
them  the  right  point  of  view  for  a  task  that  calls  for 
the  knowledge,  refinement,  tact,  and  personal  insight 
and  sympathy  with  child  life  which  alone  can  render 
them  competent  for  this  extremely  difficult  and 
trying  type  of  human  service.  The  futm'e  must 
provide  such  parents  in  increasing  numbers,  until 
they  become  a  telling  factor  in  the  elevation  of  the 
race.  But  the  education  of  adolescent  children  in 
the  physiology  of  sex  is  only  one  part  of  the  duty  of 
parents  and  teachers  in  respect  to  education  based 
on  the  needs  of  the  instinct  of  race  preservation. 
This  wider  racial  education  necessitates,  in  a  measure, 
a  training  of  intellect,  but  it  is  in  an  equal  degree 
dependent  upon  a  development  of  the  emotional  side 
of  human  nature.     The  fundamental  thing  about 


314    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

this  wider  education  is  its  dependence  on  the  idea 
of  sacrifice  —  the  sacrifice  of  certain  personal  desires 
of  self-preservation  deliberately  made  for  the  sake 
of  affection  or  generous  emotions  based  on  the  pleas- 
ure or  welfare  of  those  with  whom  there  exist  ties  of 
affection  or  friendship.  This  phenomenon  of  sacri- 
fice is  seen  in  its  typical  form  in  the  relation  of  the 
mother  to  her  child,  and  in  a  lesser  but  still  signifi- 
cant degree  in  the  relation  of  the  father  toward  the 
family  for  which  he  provides,  in  the  feelings  of  chil- 
dren toward  their  parents,  in  the  readiness  of  lovers 
to  suffer  for  each  other.  There  is  little  reasonable 
doubt  that  it  is  the  extension  of  this  willingness  on 
the  part  of  people,  at  some  time  in  their  lives,  to 
make  sacrifices  of  their  freedom  in  certain  directions 
that  constitutes  the  most  active  humanizing  influence 
of  the  world.  In  other  words,  the  sexual  instinct 
which  underlies  this  affection  is  an  extremely  power- 
ful force  in  the  construction  of  civilized  society.  It 
operates  through  highly  complex  emotions  which 
often  defy  analysis  by  the  methods  of  psychology, 
and  the  elementary  sensations  on  which  it  is  based 
are  often  mingled  with  much  more  elaborate  aesthetic 
sensations.  Among  highly  cultivated  persons,  with 
a  talent  for  introspection  upon  emotional  experi- 
ences, there  may  be  a  high  degree  of  self-education 
as  to  the  nature  of  these  experiences.  The  majority 
of  young  persons  do  not  possess  this  power  of  self- 
education.  It  is,  therefore,  necessary  that  they 
should  be  helped,  by  persons  who  understand  their 


EDUCATION  AND  THE  FUTURE  OF  THE  RACE  315 

temperaments  and  individual  reactions,  to  under- 
stand, to  develop,  and  to  control  this  important  side 
of  their  nature. 

The  objection  will  doubtless  be  raised  that  there 
are  grave  risks  attendant  on  the  dehberate  instruc- 
tion of  children  in  matters  relating  to  the  sexual  side 
of  life,  especially  the  risk  of  inviting  the  mind  to 
dwell  on  functions,  both  physical  and  psychical, 
which  should  be  permitted  to  unfold  themselves 
automatically  and  unconsciously.  But  this  method 
of  laissez  faire  has  been  given  a  full  trial,  and  its 
results  have  been  incalculably  bad.  There  is  no 
gainsaying  the  fact  that  the  human  animal  requires 
education  in  respect  to  the  racial  instincts.  What- 
ever drawbacks  there  may  be  from  rendering  chil- 
dren more  thoughtful  in  regard  to  their  personal 
physical  functions  must  be  risked,  for  they  are 
incomparably  small  when  contrasted  with  the  risks 
of  leaving  to  chance  the  development  of  this  side  of 
life.  And  it  may  be  said  with  confidence  that  when 
this  education  and  guidance  of  the  racial  instinct  is 
intrusted  to  intelligent  and  sympathetic  parents,  the 
results  are  almost  uniformly  good  among  children 
free  from  degenerative  stigmata. 

The  beneficial  results  of  a  greatly  improved  system 
of  education  which  shall  recognize  the  necessity  of 
the  development  of  the  racial  as  well  as  the  self- 
preservative  instincts  may  be  predicted  to  be  of  the 
highest  significance  for  the  future.  While  the  edu- 
cation of  the  self-preservative   instinct  has  to  do 


316     BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

mainly  with  the  intellect,  and  the  education  of  the 
racial  instinct  more  largely  with  the  emotions,  it  is, 
of  course,  apparent  that  there  can  be  in  practice  no 
sharp  separation  of  the  educational  processes  that 
relate  to  the  intellect  and  the  emotions,  but  that 
both  must  proceed  by  parallel  efforts.  The  sum 
of  these  efforts  cannot  fail  to  result  in  a  fuller 
development  of  the  possibilities  of  the  individual 
nature  than  has  hitherto  been  the  case.  And  it  is 
clear  that  this  fuller  development  can  lead  only  in 
one  direction  —  namely,  toward  a  greater  propor- 
tion of  enlightened  altruistic  conduct  among  human 
beings. 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE   FRUITS   OF   EDUCATION 

We  may  sketch  very  briefly  some  of  the  obvious 
results  and  accompaniments  of]  the  more  thorough 
and  comprehensive  educational  opening  up  of  phys- 
iological paths.  Among  the  beneficent  results  and 
associations  to  which  we  may  confidently  look  for- 
ward are  an  improvement  in  the  position  of  women, 
changes  in  the  distribution  of  the  profits  of  business, 
changes  in  methods  and  ideals  of  government,  a  great 
extension  of  the  activities  of  science  and  of  art,  and 
some  radical  changes  in  the  attitude  of  religious 
teachers. 


Probably  no  single  social  factor  has  so  powerful 
an  influence  in  determining  the  progress  of  a  nation 
toward  higher  ideals  as  the  position  of  its  women. 
At  present  no  civilized  nation  can  boast  of  anything 
like  an  equality  of  its  women  with  its  men,  in  respect 
to  education,  culture,  efficiency,  in  practical  life  or 
moral  tone.  Even  in  the  United  States,  where  there 
is  probably  less  difference  between  the  sexes  in  these 
important  respects,  the  general  superiority  of  the  men 

317 


318    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

cannot  be  questioned.  We  do  not  have  to  seek  far  for 
the  reason  of  this  inequaUty.  The  history  of  the  hu- 
man race  shows  that  women  have  always  been  subju- 
gated by  men  and  have  never  escaped  entirely  from 
this  bondage.  To-day  their  bondage  is  less  irksome 
and  less  palpable,  yet  it  still  exists  in  quite  well-defined 
forms.  The  male  members  of  the  family  control  the 
means  of  subsistence,  and  so  long  as  this  is  the  case, 
the  lack  of  independence  of  the  women  is  reflected  in 
various  ways.  Most  women  submit  readily  to  this 
male  control  of  the  finances,  or  even  encourage  it, 
for  it  has  so  long  seemed  natural  and  proper  that 
few  would  dare  question  it.  Nevertheless,  this 
acquiescence  has  many  drawbacks  tending  to  make 
or  keep  women  relatively  helpless  and  therefore 
relatively  servile  in  their  position  toward  men. 
The  fact  that  women  are  often  indulged  by  their 
husbands  in  every  luxury,  however  whimsical,  is 
not  a  valid  argument  against  the  objectionable 
tendency  to  subjection  that  is  exerted  through  the 
regulation  of  the  purse  strings. 

The  disabilities  of  women  as  compared  with  men 
are  commonly  regarded  with  complacency,  for  they 
are  ascribed  to  inherent  differences  of  a  sexual 
nature  which  cannot  be  eradicated,  and  which  it 
would  not  be  desirable  to  efface  were  it  possible. 
No  one  can  deny  that  there  are  natural  differences 
of  a  very  important  kind  between  men  and  women. 
Women  appear,  in  general,  to  be  more  emotional 
than  men,  more  ready  to  make  personal  sacrifices 


THE  FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  319 

on  account  of  affection  and  less  efficient  and  con- 
structive in  the  affairs  of  the  intellect.  But  we  yet 
know  but  Uttle  of  the  fundamental  differences  in 
sex  psychology,  and  a  grave  difficulty  in  the  way  of 
acquiring  this  knowledge  is  the  fact  that  nearly  all 
the  subjects  available  for  observation  have  been  so 
differently  environed  as  the  result  of  custom,  accord- 
ing as  they  are  male  or  female,  that  comparisons  of 
natural  faculties  are  much  obscured.  The  result  is 
that  we  cannot  state  confidently  how  much  the 
superiority  of  men  is  due  to  natural  and  fixed  causes 
and  how  much  to  social  and  modifiable  causes. 
There  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  great  and  real 
as  are  the  natural  differences  between  men  and 
women,  they  are  far  from  explaining  the  differences 
which  are  actually  in  evidence  in  society  as  it  is  at 
present  constituted.  In  other  words,  there  exist  dif- 
ferences which  must  be  due  to  the  educational  and 
environmental  influences  which  have  discriminated 
unfavorably  against  women. 

We  may  predict  with  considerable  confidence  that 
the  future  will  show  increasing  numbers  of  women 
who  have  had  educational  chances,  not  inferior  to 
those  of  men,  for  the  development  of  character  and 
talent.  Some  of  the  predictable  results  of  these 
improved  opportunities  are  self-evident ;  others  are 
less  frankly  obvious.  Some  of  these  results  have  to 
do  with  the  family  relations  of  women,  for  educa- 
tion cannot  fail  to  make  women  better  companions 
for  their  husbands  and  better  guides  and  models  for 


320    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

their  children.  A  more  intelligent  interest  on  the 
part  of  women  in  the  business  or  professional  affairs 
of  their  husbands  cannot  fail  to  strengthen  family- 
ties  and  the  solidarity  of  the  family.  Women  should 
have  a  better  knowledge  of  the  methods  of  gaining 
money  and  could  exert  a  powerful  influence  to  pre- 
vent men  from  resorting  to  questionable  practices. 
Too  often  forgot  is  the  advice  of  the  not  over  ideal- 
istic Bacon,  ''It  is  better  to  curtail  small  expenditures 
than  to  stoop  to  petty  gettings."  The  wife  here 
may  play  a  fateful  part.  This  influence  for  good  is 
but  too  often  lost,  owing  to  ignorance  or  disregard 
for  the  husband's  financial  methods  and  resources. 
But  this  influence  of  the  wife  over  the  husband's 
career  may  be  far  more  subtle,  for  it  may  extend  to 
a  deep  interest  in  the  occupation  for  its  own  sake. 
There  is  certainly  no  profession  and  perhaps  no  busi- 
ness which  has  not  its  ideals,  and  attainment  of  these 
must  often  depend  on  the  encouragement  that  a  man 
gets  at  his  own  hearth,  where  too  often  there  is  no 
inspiration  but  only  sordid  or  idle  thoughts,  arising 
quite  as  frequently  from  poor  training  and  inferior 
understanding  as  from  unworthy  intentions.  In  just 
such  relations  as  these  is  most  to  be  expected,  from 
those  men  and  women  whose  emotional  life  has  had 
the  benefit  of  intelligent  guidance  and  control.  And 
equally  great  and  fateful  is  the  effect  on  the  rising 
generation.  The  mother  who  unites  a  firm  will  to 
the  cultured  intelligence  that  comes  of  education 
will  fashion  worthy  citizens,  capable  of  doing  good 


THE  FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  321 

rather  than  bad,  capable  also  of  growing  into  centers 
that  radiate  those  influences  that  advance  the  pro- 
fessional and  business  ideals  which  are  so  much  more 
necessary  to  a  country  than  mere  ease  and  elegance 
in  living.  Moreover,  the  educated  mother  has  it  in 
her  power  to  better  the  relations  between  parents  and 
children.  Parents  have  yet  to  awaken  to  the  full 
extent  of  their  responsibility  to  their  children.  When 
they  do  so,  they  will  learn  to  purify  their  actions,  so 
as  to  live  in  the  interests  of  the  new  lives  rather  than 
in  their  own  interest ;  and  this  will  include  a  growing 
readiness  to  make  sacrifices,  personal  and  monetary, 
for  the  sake  of  their  future  representatives.  It  is 
essential  that  parents  should  learn  to  abdicate  in 
many  directions  in  favor  of  their  children  and  to 
eliminate  all  sense  of  rivalry  with  them.  This  is 
the  right  course  because  it  is  the  biological  course, 
and  the  world  will  be  greatly  improved  when  this 
fact  comes  to  be  recognized  and  parents  cease  to 
exert  the  tyrannies  of  affection  that  spoil  so  many 
young  lives  by  robbing  them  of  opportunity.  The 
unconscious  selfishness  of  parents  to  their  children  is 
one  of  the  great  evils  of  society  which  can  only  be 
cured  by  education,  and  especially  by  the  education 
of  women.  There  is  no  danger  but  that  the  sacrifices 
of  parents  for  their  children  are  usually  more  than 
recompensed  by  the  affection  of  the  children.  Where 
children  show  ingratitude,  this  is  a  serious  reflection 
on  both  heredity  and  bringing  up,  and  this  responsi- 
bihty  again  falls  on  the  elders. 


322    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

The  possibility  of  women  entering  upon  serious 
callings  is  now  no  longer  a  matter  of  dispute,  but  in 
the  case  of  every  intellectually  ambitious  married 
woman,  the  question  comes  up.  How  far  am  I  justi- 
fied in  leading  an  independent  life,  with  interests 
not  directly  related  to  husband  and  children? 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  society  would  be  the 
gainer  if  more  women  could  have  active  and  inde- 
pendent artistic,  literary,  scientific,  or  humanitarian 
interests,  and  it  is  also  quite  clear  that  thousands  of 
women  who  now  dissipate  their  energies  in  time  rob- 
ing and  meaningless  frivolities  could  find  the  time 
necessary  to  accomplish  something  worthy  in  one  of 
these  directions.  This  is  in  no  wise  in  opposition  to 
the  obvious  truth  that  for  most  women  the  most 
productive  activities  are  those  that  have  to  do  with 
the  making  of  a  home.  But  where  there  is  a  will 
there  is  a  way,  and  really  gifted  and  spirited  women 
are  wholly  justified  in  struggling  to  find  an  outlet  for 
their  powers,  if  they  have  confidence  in  them,  for 
in  this  way  society  in  general  may  become  a  great 
gainer.  Not  only  does  such  a  course  not  involve 
neglect  of  parental  duties,  but  it  may  have  a  dis- 
tinctly beneficial  effect  in  the  family,  both  by  setting 
an  example  of  earnest  effort  and  by  widening  the 
experience  of  the  mother.  But  where  the  interests 
of  the  home  and  the  outside  interests  are  in  opposition, 
right  feeling  will  naturally  tend  to  make  the  mother 
give  up  the  latter  for  her  family,  unless,  indeed,  they 
have  acquired  great  public  importance. 


THE    FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  323 

The  improved  education  of  women  must  in  time 
earn  them  the  right  to  vote.  That  it  is  to  the  interest 
of  any  community  to  grant  its  women  this  privilege 
seems  hardly  a  question  for  discussion.  In  most 
families  the  responsibility  of  rearing  the  children  is 
left  mainly  to  the  mothers,  and  it  is  not  consistent 
to  maintain  that  women  who  are  fitted  to  rear  the 
future  citizens  of  a  country  are  unfit  for  its  elective 
franchise.  A  country  can  ill  afford  to  be  without 
the  political  interest  of  its  educated  women,  for 
there  is  no  good  reason  to  think  that,  once  emanci- 
pated from  the  largely  artificial  state  of  permanent 
intellectual  childhood  in  which  they  are  now  kept, 
they  would  not  exert  as  beneficial  an  influence  in 
political  life  as  men.  That  their  sex  should  give 
them  a  somewhat  different  point  of  view  from  that 
of  men  can  hardly  be  regarded  as  an  objection,  but 
is  rather  an  advantage,  as  it  would  tend  to  introduce 
new  elements  of  human  feeling  and  thought  and 
aspiration.  There  should,  however,  be  a  moderately 
high  educational  qualification  for  the  franchise  and 
possibly  a  small  property  qualification,  though  this 
is  really  equally  necessary  in  the  case  of  men.  A 
nation  that  has  sacrificed  a  million  lives  in  the  course 
of  a  struggle  resulting  in  the  emancipation  of  the 
negro,  and  that  allows  its  most  debauched,  semi- 
criminal  classes  to  vote,  cannot  deny  its  vote  to  its 
best  women  without  being  guilty  of  an  unpardonable 
thoughtlessness. 

The  world  looks  with  dislike  and  distrust  at  the 


324    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

pretense  of  educated  people,  and  is  particularly- 
severe  in  its  judgment  of  women  who  have  become 
pretentious  in  the  course  of  the  educational  process. 
But  it  is  hardly  fair  to  blame  education  for  the 
appearance  of  this  defect  in  character  either  in 
women  or  men.  The  education  that  makes  for 
pretense  is  at  best  a  half  education,  dealing  too 
much  with  the  routine  processes  of  memorization 
and  too  little  with  the  real  understanding  and  the 
finer  feelings.  A  true  and  balanced  education,  while 
strengthening  the  quality  of  self-reliance,  must  tend 
to  inhibit  the  overappraisal  of  self  by  showing  more 
and  more  clearly  how  little  is  attainable  by  one  indi- 
vidual in  comparison  with  the  range  of  human  knowl- 
edge and  capacity.  It  may,  perhaps,  be  success- 
fully maintained  that  the  education  of  women,  as  of 
men,  often  operates  to  make  them  less  contented 
with  themselves  and  with  their  fate,  but  it  is  hardly 
just  to  attribute  to  sound  education  the  development 
of  pretense  and  egotism. 

The  refinement  and  control  of  the  sex  impulse, 
which  I  have  described  as  one  of  the  most  significant 
evidences  of  advancing  civilization,  has  been  asso- 
ciated with  what  western  nations  regard  as  an  im- 
proved condition  in  the  status  of  women.  In  some 
countries,  notably  in  the  United  States,  the  extreme 
license  of  women  and  the  exactions  often  practiced 
by  them  on  their  husbands,  parents,  and  children 
have  led  thoughtful  people  to  wonder  whether  the 
male  sentiment  and  generosity  which  have  made 


THE  FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  325 

this  great  freedom  possible  are  not  in  some  danger  of 
being  abused.  Most  cultivated  Americans  would 
probably  answer  this  question  by  saying  that  it  is 
worth  risking  something  in  the  way  of  abuse  of  the 
freedom  of  women  to  preserve  the  good  spirit  of 
equality  that  has  made  this  possible,  and  they  would 
probably  hold  this  opinion  the  more  strongly  if 
they  had  seen  the  discouraging  limitations  of  rea- 
sonable liberty  that  exist  in  the  continent  of  Europe. 
There  is,  however,  a  different  point  of  view  in  regard 
to  the  attitude  of  occidental  man  toward  woman,  a 
view  which  has  been  so  well  pictured  by  Lafcadio 
Hearn  in  his  essay  on  ''The  Eternal  Feminine," 
and  which  cannot  be  ignored.  It  appears  that  in 
Japan  many  impressions  of  life  have  emerged  from 
ancient  habits,  ethics,  and  beliefs,  in  some  cases 
singularly  opposed  to  those  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 
The  attitude  of  the  oriental  and  of  the  occidental  is 
in  nothing  more  different  than  in  the  way  in  which 
the  men  think  of  women.  The  reverence,  the  ten- 
derness, the  exaggerated  symbolism  expressed  in 
poems  and  novels  [of  the  West,  is  unintelHgible,  it 
seems,  to  the  Japanese.  Filial  piety  is  the  moral 
cement  of  his  social  system,  and  it  appears  to  him 
wholly  unnatural  to  love  his  wife  and  child  as  much 
or  more  than  his  parents.  ''To  the  young  Japanese 
marriage  appears  a  simple,  national  duty,  for  the 
due  performance  of  which  his  parents  will  make  all 
necessary  arrangements  at  the  proper  time."  The 
Scripture  text,  "For  this  cause  shall  a  man  cleave 


326    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

unto  his  wife,"  appears  to  the  Japanese  one  of  the 
most  immoral  sentiments  ever  uttered.  Mr.  Hearn 
tells  us:  "The  reserve  of  Japanese  literature  regard- 
ing that  love  which  is  the  great  theme  of  our  greatest 
novelists  and  poets  is  exactly  paralleled  by  the 
reserve  of  Japanese  society  in  regard  to  the  same 
topic.  The  typical  woman  often  figures  in  Japanese 
romance  as  a  heroine;  as  a  perfect  mother;  as  a 
pious  daughter,  willing  to  sacrifice  all  for  duty ;  as  a 
loyal  wife,  who  follows  her  husband  into  battle, 
never  as  a  sentimental  maiden,  dying,  or  making 
others  die,  for  love."  It  would  not  be  fair  to  infer 
from  this  oriental  relation  of  man  and  woman  that 
the  man  does  not  love  his  wife.  The  Japanese 
may  love  his  wife ;  in  fact,  it  is  his  duty  to  love  her. 
But  affection  must  be  subordinated  to  duty,  and  is 
actually  so  subordinated. 

That  there  accrue  to  a  nation  very  distinct  advan- 
tages from  the  existence  of  social  ideals  which  place 
duty  to  parents  and  the  state  above  all  else,  is  a 
proposition  which  might  be  strongly  defended.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  successful  maintenance  of  this 
attitude  leads  the  Anglo-Saxon  to  suspect  that  the 
Japanese  must  possess  a  nature  relatively  thin  in 
many  finer  emotional  qualities  built  on  the  sexual 
instinct  —  a  nature  which  has  never  acquired  the 
somewhat  dangerous  instability  which  at  least  during 
short  periods  makes  it  possible  to  make  extreme 
sacrifices  for  a  love  far  more  spiritual  than  physical 
in  its  character.     The  poverty  of  Japanese  emotional 


THE  FRUITS  OP  EDUCATION  327 

poetry  and  the  primitive  nature  of  Japanese  music 
—  the  two  media  for  the  expression  of  love  —  go  far 
to  bear  out  this  idea. 

With  these  differences  between  the  occidental  and 
the  oriental  nature  there  is  inseparably  Unked  a  dif- 
ference in  the  fundamental  constitution  of  society 
which  possesses  a  deep  biological  significance.  It  is 
that  the  feudal  structure  of  oriental  society,  expressed 
in  the  fact  that  society  (in  the  special  sense  of  the 
word)  still  remains  mascuUne,  has  brought  about 
a  complete  inversion  of  the  legitimate  biological 
trend  of  the  national  development.  This  masculine 
structure  of  society,  and  the  traditional  subordina- 
tion of  the  interests  of  children  to  those  of  their 
parents,  combine  to  bring  an  element  of  rigidity  and 
hardness  into  the  national  life.  FiUal  piety  is  an 
admirable  trait,  but  the  exaction  of  it  by  the  parents 
is  far  less  admirable  and  may  easily  become  a  highly 
objectionable  feature.  Biologically  speaking,  the 
responsibility  of  parents  for  their  children  is  far 
greater  than  the  responsibility  of  the  children  to  their 
parents.  Without  parental  help  children  must  in- 
evitably die,  being  wholly  dependent.  But  parents 
may  live  without  filial  aid  and  seldom  depend  on  it 
until  relatively  late  in  life.  There  is  a  tendency 
everyw^here  for  parents  to  use  the  irresistible  lever- 
age which  their  parental  relation  gives  them,  to 
mould  their  children  to  their  own  ends.  To  exact 
some  services  in  return  for  those  given,  is  natural 
and  helpful  to  the  character  of  the  child,  but  the 


328    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

demand  made  on  the  child  may  easily  become  exces- 
sive and  thus  stand  in  the  way  of  its  development. 
This  happens  often  enough  in  European  countries, 
but  in  Japan  the  subordination  of  the  interests  of  the 
children  is  part  of  a  stereotyped  system  which  no  one 
dares  to  question.  Parents  accept  sacrifices  from 
their  children  which  they  have  no  right  to  demand, 
and  this  course  is  none  the  less  reprehensible  because 
the  sacrifices  are  willingly  made.  The  oriental  looks 
to  the  past  and  not  sufficiently  to  the  future;  but 
nature  looks  to  the  future,  and  the  future  belongs  to 
the  young  generation  and  not  to  the  old.  The 
nations  which  do  not  give  their  young  the  fullest 
opportunity  to  develop,  unhampered  by  arbitrary 
and  excessive  parental  duties,  must  remain  undevel- 
oped intellectually  and  industrially  in  comparison 
with  the  countries  that  realize  the  possibilities  of 
youth  and  the  increased  inherent  advantage  that 
each  new  generation  has  over  the  one  that  preceded 
it.  But  these  advantages  cannot  be  secured  to 
children  except  as  the  result  of  the  most  enlightened 
family  life,  where  the  mother,  as  well  as  the  father, 
cooperates  to  give  the  children  every  opportunity  for 
mental,  moral,  and  physical  growth,  even  when  this 
entails  great  personal  sacrifices.  In  countries  like 
China  and  Japan  the  family  life  that  leads  to  the 
fullest,  most  unhampered  growth  of  the  children  is 
something  unknown.  I  consider  that  the  reason  that 
such  growth  is  there  impossible  is  because  of  the  ab- 
sence of  those  higher  and  more  subtle  relationships 


THE  FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  329 

between  men  and  women  that  lead  to  the  finest 
ideals  of  family  life.  In  other  words,  the  refined 
sexually  based  sentiment,  which  the  oriental  cannot 
understand  and  which  he  regards  with  aversion, 
becomes  a  subtle  but  potent  influence  in  securing 
the  freest  and  best  development  of  the  young.  It 
is  thus  a  biological  factor  in  bringing  about  the 
highest  type  of  civilization,  if  we  may  apply  this 
term  to  that  progress  which  allows  the  freest  play  to 
the  highest  intellectual  and  moral  faculties  of  man. 

II 

A  tendency  clearly  discernible  among  the  nations 
most  advanced  in  civilization  is  a  growing  dissatis- 
faction with  existing  economic  conditions,  which  is 
already  showing  itself  in  legislative  and  executive 
measures  designed  to  correct  some  of  the  most 
distasteful  of  these  conditions.  Among  the  things 
that  have  called  forth  the  most  active  criticism  and 
hostility  is  that  uneven  distribution  in  the  profits  of 
business  which  has  built  up  fortunes  so  great  as  to 
excite  the  liveliest  interest  and  even  admiration  on 
the  part  of  the  disapproving  and  often  semienvious 
populace.  The  most  conspicuous  of  these  fortunes 
have  arisen  in  the  United  States,  where  favorable 
natural  conditions  have  given  scope  for  the  accu- 
mulative talents  of  many  men  of  extraordinary 
aggressively  constructive  or  executive  ability,  and  it 
is  here  that  restrictive  measures  are  now  being  most 


330    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

actively  agitated.  The  hostility  felt  toward  these  rich 
men  is  by  no  means  confined  to  them,  but  includes 
thousands  of  other  men  who  have  attained  business 
successes  by  opportunities,  methods,  and  talents 
similar  to  those  of  their  more  conspicuous  and  more 
wealthy  prototypes.  It  is  doubtless  true  that  the 
use  of  harsh  or  even  dishonest  methods  of  business 
and  of  artificial  advantages,  such  as  rebates  and  a 
high  protective  tariff,  have  contributed  to  the  wide- 
spread unpopularity  of  many  of  the  most  successful 
American  business  men.  It  is  worth  while  to  con- 
sider some  present  tendencies  that  will  certainly  lead 
to  changes  in  the  distribution  of  the  profits  of  busi- 
ness and  of  property  generally. 

In  all  complex  forms  of  civilization  society  is 
organized  on  an  aristocratic  basis,  and  has  al- 
ways been  so  organized.  This  holds  true  in  the 
sense  tha  a  relatively  small  number  of  individuals 
have  obtained  for  themselves  superior  advantages  in 
respect  to  wealth  and  political  influence  and  the 
privileges  which  these  can  secure.  The  obtaining 
of  these  advantages  depends  in  the  final  analysis  on 
perfectly  definite  biological  conditions;  that  is  to  say, 
on  superiorities  of  physical  organization  inclusive  of 
that  superiority  in  the  central  nervous  mechanism 
which  is  the  substructure  of  intelligence,  will,  and 
character.  In  former  civilizations  wealth  and  po- 
litical and  military  power  held  an  even  greater  place 
in  the  aristocratic  scheme  than  in  the  societies  of 
to-day,  for  with  the  rise  of  literature,  art,  and  science 


THE  FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  331 

—  the  formal  expressions  of  the  union  of  the  higher 
racial  instincts  with  those  of  self-preservation  —  the 
aristocratic  structure  was  significantly  broadened  by 
the  entrance  of  men  who  live  rather  for  the  sake  of 
ideas  than  for  things,  and  whose  creations  are  not 
motived  by  the  desire  to  gain  the  ordinary  kinds  of 
power  over  humanity.  But  even  with  the  accession 
of  this  class,  the  number  of  those  constituting  the 
ruling  classes,  in  the  broadest  sense,  is  small  as 
compared  with  the  entire  population  of  any  country. 
This  aristocracy  of  power  and  intellect,  whether  we 
construe  it  liberally  or  narrowly,  rests  on  and  springs 
from  a  large  mass  of  human  beings  who  toil  with  so 
httle  return  of  intellectual  or  moral  elevation,  and 
with  so  few  material  or  spiritual  opportunities  for 
themselves  or  their  children  that  the  inequahty 
excites  the  pity  and  often  the  indignation  of  those 
who  interest  themselves  in  their  social  welfare.  In- 
numerable plans  and  panaceas  have  been  proposed 
to  relieve  these  inequalities  in  the  sense  of  improving 
the  opportunities  of  the  poorest  classes,  and  the 
discontented  elements  are  appealed  to  from  every 
side  to  support  policies  and  plans  for  their  improve- 
ment. The  great  variety  of  the  measures  proposed 
is  in  itself  an  indication  of  the  uncertainty  of  the 
remedies.  It  is  in  the  highest  degree  doubtful 
whether  any  remedies  can  have  a  significant  effect 
in  the  amehoration  of  the  masses  of  any  community 
which  is  not  founded  on  an  educational  basis  of  which 
an  enlightened  self-control  is  the  chief  pillar.     The 


332    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

first  practical  aim  in  paving  the  way  for  real  better- 
ment must  be  the  intelligent  limitation  of  population 
through  the  curbing  of  procreation.  Laws  can  prob- 
ably never  be  relied  upon  to  effect  this ;  but  what  law 
cannot  command,  the  human  will  may  perhaps  accom- 
plish. Intelligence  may  in  time  act  as  a  powerful 
impulse  to  limit  families  to  a  number  that  can  be 
reared  with  care  and  opportunity.  This  cannot 
happen  in  a  country  short  of  labor,  owing  to  the 
possession  of  extended  undeveloped  natural  re- 
sources, but  it  may  happen  when  the  constant 
demand  for  rapid  extension  has  slackened.  Then, 
and  only  then,  will  the  ideal  of  quality  take  prece- 
dence over  the  ideal  of  quantity  in  human  affairs. 

It  is  certain  that  under  no  plan  of  social  organiza- 
tion can  there  be  a  disappearance  of  that  stratifica- 
tion which  has  its  basis  in  inherited  and  acquired 
biological  advantages  possessed  by  some  individuals. 
Certain  types  of  intelligence  and  character  will  al- 
ways play  a  leading  part  in  the  life  of  a  community 
and  will  constitute  a  plastic  and  changing  aristocracy, 
and  not  necessarily  a  rigid  one.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  rough  work  of  the  world  will  always  have  to  be 
done.  There  must  be  laborers  on  the  farm,  in  the 
factory,  and  perhaps  in  the  mines,  and  these  will  be 
recruited  from  the  robust  members  of  the  least  highly 
educated  classes,  though  this  deficiency  in  education 
may  be  much  less  pronounced  than  now  and  only 
relatively  poor.  But  if  the  distinction  between  the 
aristocratic  and  protelarian  classes  cannot  be  wiped 


THE  FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  333 

out,  owing  to  biological  human  inequalities  which 
appear  to  be  unendingly  recurrent  in  nature,  there 
are  possibilities  of  much  closer  and  better  relations 
between  the  more  favored  and  less  favored  strata 
than  now  exist.  The  initiative,  in  the  effort  to  gain 
these  better  relations,  must  come  largely  from  the 
more  favored  classes,  although  the  organized  action  of 
laboring  men  within  recent  years  has  begun  to  be  a 
potent  influence  for  the  insistence  on  certain  kinds 
of  recognition.  There  are  several  distinct  though 
closely  affiliated  forces  which,  under  the  influence  of 
broadening  and  deepening  education,  will  serve,  if 
any  will,  to  secure  the  improved  human  relations 
which  are  so  greatly  needed,  if  the  most  intelligent 
and  sympathetic  thought  of  the  relatively  few  is  to 
be  utilized  in  its  most  obvious  and  needed  human 
application.  First,  the  gradual  utilization  of  the  nat- 
ural resources  of  countries  will  in  time  bring  them 
into  a  state  of  approximate  equilibrium  and  check 
their  expansion  in  raw  material.  With  this  check  in 
expansion  must  come  a  corresponding  curb  to  the 
opportunities  of  able  and  venturesome  promoters  of 
industries.  The  lines  of  railways  will  have  become 
established  so  as  to  require  only  minor  extensions; 
the  coal  and  iron  mines  will  have  become  well  known 
and  their  output  carefully  controlled;  the  banking 
facihties  existent  will  have  met  the  demands  of  busi- 
ness and  will  not  widely  vary  in  scope,  at  least  within 
their  own  countries.  Secondly,  men  of  aggressive 
type  whose  ability  has  had  full  play  during  the  ex- 


334    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

pansive  period  will  be  forced  to  turn  their  powers 
into  somewhat  different  channels.  Original  oppor- 
tunity with  its  speculative  chances  will  be  curtailed 
and  replaced  by  more  systematic  attention  to  the 
improvement  of  existing  plants  and  fuller  study  of 
their  needs  and  their  relations  to  society.  These  im- 
portant executive  positions  will  be  always  among  the 
most  honorable  and  highly  paid  in  the  community, 
but  they  will  be  shorn  of  their  capacity  to  greatly 
enrich,  in  the  present-day  sense,  those  who  fill  them. 
This  curtailment  of  gross  personal  opportunity  is  in 
itself  an  educational  factor  which,  when  joined  to 
increasing  culture  and  the  irrepressible  spirit  of 
democracy,  must  serve  to  direct  the  thoughts  of 
forceful  men  more  and  more  to  the  unending  and 
subtle  complexities  of  human  affairs,  and  somewhat 
less  toward  purely  mechanical  problems.  In  short, 
it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  such  men  will  not 
decline  in  vigor,  but  will  rather  redirect  their  energies 
into  more  directly  humanizing  channels.  Finally, 
it  is  clear  that  the  lower  working  classes  of  society, 
having  once  tasted  the  fruits  of  a  higher  standard  of 
living  than  now  prevails,  with  the  opportunities  for 
self-development  that  come  from  a  share  of  leisure 
each  day,  will  resist  all  economic  tendencies  that 
threaten  these  precious  privileges.  They  will  resent 
and  resist,  by  means  of  the  franchises  which  they  are 
learning  to  use  more  and  more  skilfully,  the  impor- 
tation of  labor  with  lower  standards  of  living,  which 
those  who  are  too  eager  for  gain  will  always  be  willing 


THE  FRUITS  OF  EDUCATION  335 

to  invite  under  the  excuse  of  stimulating  industry. 
Whether  the  laboring  classes  will  exercise  intelligent 
restraint  in  reproduction  for  the  sake  of  improving 
the  opportunities  for  the  best  development  of  their 
children,  remains  to  be  seen.  In  the  long  run  this 
is  a  question  of  ideals,  and  these,  in  turn,  hang  on 
character  and  education  —  the  education  of  life,  of 
things,  and  of  books.  There  is  no  doubt  that  modern 
economic  methods  make  possible  for  the  laborer 
what  was  never  possible  in  earlier  days  —  some 
leisure  over  and  above  the  time  needed  to  make  a 
living.  All  depends  on  the  use  to  which  this  leisure 
is  put  —  if  it  be  to  ignoble  ends,  there  will  come 
decadence;  if  to  enlightened  ends,  there  will  come 
broadening  opportunities.  It  is  just  in  this  vital 
decision  that  the  upper  classes  can  most  effectively 
lend  the  weight  of  their  influence  toward  that  which 
is  worth  while.  The  encouragement  of  experienced, 
humane,  and  cultivated  people  is  the  leaven  needed 
by  the  lower  strata  for  their  uplift.  This  is,  in  fact, 
the  greatest  of  all  opportunities  of  doing  good  of  a 
permanent  kind,  and  there  are  a  thousand  ways  in 
which  individual  talents  of  helpfulness  can  be  turned 
to  social  use.  Will  the  upper  classes  of  power,  of 
intelHgence,  and  of  leisure  one  day  see  their  chance, 
—  as  they  have  never  yet  seen  it,  —  and  seize  the 
chance  with  enthusiastic  determination  to  use  it? 
Will  they  one  day  turn  from  the  selfish,  vulgar  uses 
of  time,  to  which  so  many  devote  their  opportunity, 
and,  taking  the  dynamic  view  of  hfe,  come  to  the  aid 


336    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

of  the  biological  processes  that  make  for  human 
progress  among  the  many  for  the  limitation  of  suffer- 
ing and  the  blotting  out  of  such  inequalities  as 
natural  conditions  will  allow?  It  is  the  highest 
privilege  of  the  fortunate  and  educated  man  to  take 
a  part  in  modifying  natural  processes  for  the  good  of 
large  numbers.  And  the  future  course  of  the  white 
races  must  depend  largely  on  the  attitude  of  the 
powerful  and  fortunate  towards  the  weak  and  less 
fortunate.  It  is  no  unreasonable  hope  that  this 
attitude  will  grow  infinitely  more  human  and  Chris- 
tian than  it  has  ever  been,  while  the  constructive 
human  forces,  at  once  the  most  subtle  and  most 
potent,  will  lead  to  a  really  new  awakening  ■ —  ''con- 
sciousness the  will  informing,  till  it  fashion  all  things 
fair." 


CHAPTER  XIV 

CONCLUSION 

It  has  been  the  aim  of  this  essay  to  set  forth  a  mode 
of  thought  regarding  some  of  the  problems  of  human 
life.  It  assumes  that  the  human  organism,  like  all 
others  living  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  planet,  is 
a  machine ;  and  it  assumes  that  there  is  no  evidence 
that  this  machine  is  not  a  machine  in  all  respects, 
like  any  engine  which  is  the  creation  of  man.  The  fail- 
ure of  known  physical  and  mechanical  laws  to  explain 
growth  and  the  cell  dynamics  of  reproduction  cannot 
be  construed  as  proof  that  these  phenomena  are  extra- 
physical  and  extrachemical.  Forces  are  at  work  in 
living  beings  which  the  mind  of  man  has  not  com- 
passed; but  this  is  true  also  of  the  forces  that  are 
bound  up  with  what  we  call  inanimate  matter. 
Energy  is  a  feature  of  all  matter,  living  or  dead,  and 
one  of  the  most  scrutinizing  views  of  modern  science 
identifies  energy  and  matter  in  a  manner  which  makes 
a  powerful  appeal  to  reason,  though  lacking  in  actual 
demonstrability.  Certain  it  is  that  energy  possesses 
the  attribute  of  direction  and  persistence,  and  it  is 
reasonable  to  think  of  combinations  of  different  forms 
of  energy  in  possession  of  direction  inclusive  of  what 
we  call  matter,  which  we  cannot  now  analyze  into 
2  337 


338    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OP  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

their  constituents  {e.g.  the  healing  of  wounds). 
Such  energy  complexes  may  be  answerable  for  the 
obscure  behavior  of  protoplasm. 

This  mechanistic  mode  of  thought  cannot  except 
the  human  mind  from  the  sphere  of  dynamical  opera- 
tion. It  looks  on  mind  as  the  complex  product  of 
consciousness,  and  it  looks  on  consciousness  as  a 
general  function  of  cerebral  neural  action  —  espe- 
cially such  as  is  concerned  with  associative  memory. 
The  active,  simultaneous,  coordinated  association 
of  large  numbers  of  cerebral  cells  is  regarded  as  essen- 
tial to  the  intense  revival  of  memories  of  the  outer 
world  or  that  intense  immediate  reflection  of  the  outer 
world  which  brings  awareness  of  self.  When  once 
there  has  been  attained  the  degree  of  awareness  of 
self  which  enables  the  individual  to  separate  himself 
distinctly  from  the  rest  of  the  world,  the  basis  of 
thought  has  been  laid  and  psychical  progress  in  many 
directions  is  possible  for  the  mechanism  capable  of 
effecting  this  distinction  of  self.  Through  the  in- 
creasing practice  and  coordination  of  the  neural 
elements  of  the  brain  more  and  more  elaborated 
memories  are  stored  and  revived,  and  these  memories 
are  treated  as  the  subject  matter  of  thought  and 
reflection.  The  fact  that  the  dynamical  nature  of 
the  physical  and  chemical  changes  that  go  on  in  the 
nerve  elements  in  the  processes  built  on  conscious- 
ness is  not  understood  need  not  disturb  the  belief 
that  such  changes,  extremely  subtle  in  kind,  do 
actually  occur.    What  especially  concerns  the  biolo- 


CONCLUSION  339 

gist  who  interests  himself  in  the  psychical  aspects  of 
life  is  the  recognition  of  the  gradual  evolution  of  these 
dynamical  changes,  and  their  relative  incomplete- 
ness except  in  those  most  cultured  and  best  organized 
human  brains  which  we  may  arbitrarily  accept  as 
standards  of  what  is  possible  of  attainment.  The 
significance  of  the  incompleteness  lies  in  the  decep- 
tions which  the  unbalanced  and  imperfect  products 
of  consciousness  bring  into  existence  —  deceptions 
of  sense  and  of  mind  which  we  have  a  right  to  pro- 
claim as  such  by  comparing  the  actions  of  inferior 
minds  with  the  recognized  best.  For  it  is  inevitable, 
and  might  almost  have  been  predicted,  that  the  indi- 
vidual and  race  endowed  with  consciousness  should, 
according  to  varying  organization,  have  developed 
excessive  regard  for  the  personality  so  strongly  felt, 
the  faults  of  egotism  in  many  forms  —  before  the 
corrections  for  this  have  been  developed  in  the 
highest  grades  of  cerebral  action,  i.e.  the  inhibitions 
based  on  superior  understanding. 

Many  deceptions  regarding  the  nature  of  human 
feelings  and  desires,  the  craving  for  immortality,  the 
sharp  separation  of  body  and  soul,  the  idea  of  free 
will,  the  food  and  sex  impulses,  have  their  origin  in 
a  too  narrow  range  of  the  experiences  of  conscious- 
ness. Just  as  substances  at  very  high  temperatures 
develop  properties  quite  unsuspected  in  common 
thermal  conditions,  so  these  feelings  and  desires 
assume  new  aspects  when  illumined  by  modern  con- 
cepts of  science.    A  distinction  between  the  material 


340    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

and  the  immaterial  being  no  longer  possible,  why 
should  we  trouble  ourselves  as  to  distinctions  between 
body  and  mind,  matter  and  soul  ?  We  have  been  so 
deceived  by  continual  association  with  solid  objects 
as  to  gain  highly  distorted  ideas  in  regard  to  what  is 
called  matter.  Knowledge  and  imagination  come  to 
the  rescue  and  reform  our  concepts. 

Living  protoplasm  is  endowed  with  two  funda- 
mental properties  on  which  are  based  two  whole  series 
of  instinctive  actions  in  those  organisms  sufficiently 
advanced  in  organization  to  support  expressive  nerv- 
ous mechanisms.  The  self-preservative  instinct  has 
its  foundation  in  the  power  of  individual  growth, 
and  the  correlative  need  for  food ;  the  race-preserva- 
tive instinct  has  its  basis  in  the  power  of  cell  division 
—  in  the  entire  individual  as  for  a  special  group  of 
cells.  The  physical  development  of  the  central  nerv- 
ous system  is  influenced  in  important  and  prob- 
ably specific  ways  by  the  somatic  cells  and  by  the 
reproductive  cells,  and  it  is  not  singular  that  the 
processes  of  ideation  should  also  be  influenced  by  the 
activities  of  these  two  groups  of  cells.  The  habitual 
life  of  the  adult  human  being  is  dominated  by  self- 
preservative  reactions,  but  interwoven  with  these  are 
reactions  based  on  the  activities  of  the  sexual  cells  — 
reactions  at  times  capable  of  taking  precedence  over 
those  of  self-preservative  origin.  The  content  of 
the  psychical  life  is  built  upon  the  elaborate  though 
irregular  felting  of  these  two  distinct  types  of  reac- 
tions, and  the  patterns  may  become  so  complex  as 


CONCLUSION  341 

to  obscure  the  identity  of  the  constituent  strands. 
-Esthetic  and  rehgious  emotions,  for  example,  may- 
show  no  obvious  traces  of  their  dependence  on  these 
instinctive  elements  without  the  aid  of  close  scrutiny. 
The  history  of  the  development  of  the  nervous  system 
itself  from  unspecialized  cells  supplies  a  material  anal- 
ogy to  the  idea  that  superior  mental  states  may  arise 
from  humble  origins  of  unpredictable  potentialities. 
The  psychical  life  of  the  normal  individual  is  based 
on  three  kinds  of  experiences.  Two  of  these  have 
their  origin  in  stimuli  from  the  outer  world,  either 
from  unorganized  nature  or  from  living  beings.  The 
stimuU  derived  from  association  with  human  beings 
are  responsible  for  some  of  the  most  important  forma- 
tive processes  of  the  human  nervous  system,  and  one 
may  go  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  continual  and  multi- 
plex interaction  of  nervous  protoplasm  —  through 
the  agency  of  what  we  call  mind  —  is  the  prime 
environmental  agency  in  the  evolution  of  ideas  and 
concepts.  But  the  stimuli  from  the  outer  world  are 
recorded  physically  in  the  neural  structures,  and 
these  records  are  susceptible  of  revival  from  within 
the  nervous  system  itself;  that  is,  without  the  aid  of 
new  external  stimuli.  This  third  type  of  human 
experience,  the  revival  of  sensory  impressions  and  of 
the  mental  states  accompanying  them,  is  the  physi- 
ological basis  of  thought,  imagination,  reflection  — 
or  in  other  words,  of  psychical  growth.  Such 
revivals  of  sensory  impressions  are  of  course  not 
limited  to  this  inner  origin,  but  are  very  generally 
initiated  by  stimuh  through  the  sense  organs. 


342    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

We  may  reasonably  think  of  the  human  nervous 
system  as  moulded,  almost  continually,  by  stimuli 
arising  mainly  through  the  agency  of  other  human 
nervous  systems.  This  powerfully  moulding  influ- 
ence may  be  directly  exerted,  through  speech  and 
behavior,  but  among  cultivated  peoples  is  effectively 
reenforced  by  the  indirect  action  of  human  records, 
as  by  art,  music,  or  literature.  As  these  records 
reflect  the  outer  world  of  nature,  as  distinct  from 
man,  it  may  be  truly  said  that  much  of  man's  knowl- 
edge of  nature  may  come  through  human  interpre- 
tation of  it  in  lieu  of  direct  experience.  It  is,  indeed, 
a  definite  tendency  of  modern  culture  to  exclude  in- 
creasingly the  direct  appeal  of  nature  and  to  accept 
as  a  substitute  the  experiences  of  other  human  beings 
with  respect  to  it.  Hence  we  may  say  of  cultured 
races,  at  the  present  time  more  strongly  than  of  any 
other,  that  the  progress  and  fate  of  their  individual 
members  is  in  a  high  degree  based  on  the  neural 
interactions  of  these  members.  We  have  already 
seen  that  there  is  no  satisfactory  evidence  of  strict 
spontaneity  of  action  on  the  part  of  human  nervous 
systems  or  the  individuals  of  whom  they  constitute 
the  essence ;  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  there  prevails 
an  automatism  of  transcendent  delicacy,  refinement, 
and  complexity.  This  incomparable  and  superla- 
tive automatism  is  the  expression  of  the  extreme 
plasticity  of  the  wonderful  neural  protoplasm  which 
makes  up  the  nervous  system  of  man.  The  experi- 
ences of  each  human  nervous  system  are  so  numerous, 


CONCLUSION  343 

SO  individual,  in  the  ceaseless  activities  of  life, 
that  we  are  justified  in  looking  at  the  mechanisms 
themselves  as  highly  experimental  and  adaptive. 
Adequately  to  picture  the  play  of  stimuli  and  reac- 
tions capable  of  arising  between  two  such  nervous 
mechanisms  would  be  a  task  defiant  of  human 
powers ;  how  impossible,  then,  to  draw,  even  in  out- 
line, the  complexities  that  arise  from  that  free  inter- 
course of  human  beings  which  characterizes  human 
life  in  modern  communities?  We  are  obliged  to 
satisfy  our  legitimate  interest,  tinged  with  curiosity, 
by  a  concentrated  effort  of  imagination,  to  arouse 
and  revive  or  rather  reconstruct  a  mental  picture  of 
the  make-up  of  the  nervous  system  and  its  ingoing 
and  outgoing  paths,  while  simultaneously  endeavor- 
ing to  think  of  the  play  of  forces  within  these  mani- 
fold structures  during  some  definite  state  of  activity. 
For  some  minds  even  this  crude  effort  yields  a  degree 
of  satisfaction,  if  it  does  no  more  than  emphasize 
anew  the  impossibility  of  the  stupendous  task. 
Our  failure  to  compass  this  undertaking  need  not 
blind  us  to  the  consequences  that  flow  from  the 
admission  of  the  incomparable  plasticity  and  cease- 
less activity  of  the  superior  automatic  nervous 
mechanism.  If  the  behavior  of  one  elaborate  autom- 
aton influences  that  of  another,  the  total  behavior 
of  an  individual  must  be  the  sum  of  these  interactions 
of  nervous  protoplasm  of  different  brains  with  each 
other  and  with  the  outer  world.  According  to  this 
view  we  take  no  account  of  what  is  called  freedom  of 


344    BIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  HUMAN  PROBLEMS 

the  will,  for  this  is  an  illusory  feeling,  associated 
with  necessary  and  inevitable  protoplasmic  reactions, 
excited  by  stimuli  which,  acting  on  a  brain  of  given 
organization  and  experience,  could  have  no  other 
outcome  except  that  which  in  fact  transpired.  If 
this  view  be  reflective  of  the  actual,  we  must  regard 
the  conduct  and  the  fate  of  any  race  of  men  or 
animals  as  conditioned  essentially  by  the  nature  of 
the  protoplasm  in  which  it  had  its  origin  and  espe- 
cially by  the  properties  of  its  nervous  protoplasm. 
We  cannot  predict  the  future  of  any  race  or  any  indi- 
vidual because  we  know  neither  what  the  environ- 
ment holds  in  store,  nor  what  are  the  inherent  proper- 
ties of  the  reactive  protoplasm.  The  best  we  can 
hope  to  do  is  to  predict  that  in  a  given  set  of  condi- 
tions a  race  of  observed  traits  will  react  in  such  a  way 
as  to  reveal  certain  tendencies  making  for  self-preser- 
vation or  for  destruction,  for  psychical  improvement 
or  for  debasement.  The  future  of  any  man  or  race 
of  men  is  definitely  predetermined  in  the  protoplasm. 
But  the  environmental  stimuli  which  evoke  the 
reactions  we  call  conduct  are  not  of  a  chance  nature ; 
down  to  their  minutest  details  they,  too,  are  part  of 
an  inevitable  system.  Hence  we  cannot  escape  the 
conclusion  that  although  man  lives  in  the  midst  of  a 
world  having  the  appearance  of  almost  infinite  plas- 
ticity and  uncertainty,  his  life  unfolds  itself  with 
relentless  rigidity  in  the  midst  of  an  equally  fixed 
sequence  of  external  phenomena. 


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By  C.  a.  HERTER,  M.D., 

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On  Infantilism  from  Chronic  Intestinal 
Infection 

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"  A  number  of  exquisite  and  philosophical  essays  on  the  medical  art 
in  its  broadest  aspects,  apparently  pervaded  by  a  realization  of  what  the 
science  of  medicine  might  be  and  how  far  it  falls  short  of  its  ideals. 
.  .  .  These  essays  are  delightful  to  read.  They  are  wise  and  shrewd, 
instinct  with  a  knowledge  of  human  nature,  with  benevolence  and  with 
a  humility  that  recognizes  its  own  shortcomings  rather  than  its  own  at- 
tainments." —  Argonaut. 

"  The  book  abounds  in  amiable  prejudices  stated  with  candour  and 
argued  with  ingenuity.  It  is  written  in  many  moods,  sentimental, 
practical,  reflective  and  pugnacious,  and  in  a  style  that  is  brisk,  senten- 
tious, always  readable." —  The  Bookman. 

"  To  the  few  but  exceedingly  precious  classics  of  literature  having 
medical  men  as  their  authors  has  now  to  be  added  this  small  book  with 
an  alluring  title.  Unfortunately  the  book  is  anonymous,  but  its  author's 
name  should  be  in  the  select  list  which  includes  those  of  Sir  Thomas 
Browne  and  Dr.  John  Brown."  —  Boston  Herald. 

"  It  remains  only  to  say  as  emphatically  as  possible  that  every  one 
who  knows  the  intellectual  refreshment  of  clear,  unconventional  thought 
expressed  with  insight  and  wit  will  give  this  anonymous  writer  a  cordial 
welcome."  —  The  Outlook. 

For  its  spirit  even  more  than  its  content ;  for  its  wise 
common  sense,  and  uncommon  wit ;  it  is  a  rare  book 
to  put  into  the  hands  of  any  man  just  beginning  the 
practice  of  a  profession.  A  doctor  cannot  afford  to 
miss  it,  but  one  need  not  be  a  doctor  to  enjoy  its  hu- 
man, delightful  charm. 


THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth  Avenue  New  York 


The  Conquest  of  Nerves 

By  J.  W.  COURTNEY,  M.D. 

Cloth,  gilt  top,  i2tno,  viii  +  2og  pages,  index,  $1.25  net ;  by  mail,  $1.33 
"  After  reading  many  half-baked  books  on  psychotherapy  and  New 
Thought,  it  is  refreshing  to  come  upon  '  The  Conquest  of  Nerves,'  by 
a  man  who  knows  his  subject  and  speaks  with  authority  backed  by  com- 
mon sense,  thinking  clearly  through  a  hazy  theme  and  shedding  truth 
with  entertaining  pungency."  — Boston  Traveler. 

"  The  book  is  simple,  earnest,  and  practical."  —  Christian  Renter. 

"  That  nerves  can  be  conquered  and  how  they  may  be  is  the  subject 
of  the  doctor's  most  unusual  and  interesting  volume,  which  should  find 
a  royal  welcome  from  the  many  sufferers  for  whom  it  was  written." 

—  Hartford  Sunday  Post, 

Heredity  and  Social  Progress 

By  SIMON  N.  PATTEN,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Professor  of  Politi- 
cal Economy,  University  of  Pennsylvania.  Author  of  "  The  New 
Basis  of  Civilization,"  etc. 

Cloth,  i2mo,  $i.2§  net 

"  With  keen  philosophic  insight  Professor  Patten,  in  this  book,  probes 
to  the  roots  of  biology  and  plants  there  the  foundations  of  economics 
and  other  social  sciences.  It  is  a  bold  deduction,  wrought  out  with  per- 
fect logic,  and  shows  one  common  principle  active  in  every  advance 
from  the  lowest  unicellular  organism  to  the  highest  social  institution." 

—  Annals  American  Academy. 

"  It  is  a  book  rich  in  suggestion  and  presents  the  subject  in  a  clear 
and  sometimes  rather  startling  manner."  —  Ohio  Fartrur. 

THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY 

Publishers  64-66  Fifth.  Avenue  New  York 


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